District Primary Education Programme

1. District Primary Education Programme INTRODUCTION • Coverage: 275 Districts in 18 States • Objectives: • Universalisation of Primary Education through • Universal Access • Increasing Retention - Reducing dropouts • Improving Quality through Capacity Building • Financial Allocations : • Upto Rs. 40 crores per District • Civil Works : Upto 33.33% of Project cost • Total civil works cost – 3667 crores (approximately) CAM Toolkit for Engineers

2. Civil Works Activities under DPEP • Access - Construction of School Buildings (New & Building less) • Retention - Provision of • Additional Classrooms • Repairs • Toilets • Drinking water • Quality Improvement - Block & Cluster Resource Centres Civil works Focus areas: • Community participation • Quality construction • Cost-effective construction CAM Toolkit for Engineers

3. DPEP I • 7 States : 42 Districts : Initiated in 1993-94 • Effort was to meet targets within stipulated time and ensuring quality of construction. • First instance when large number of constructions were attempted to be taken up through community involvement. • Being the initial stages of the programme there were teething problems in terms of Implementing Agency, Supervision System, Approval requirements etc. • Cost effective constructions were therefore not the focus. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

4. Constructions under DPEP I were based on traditional designs built with conventional materials and technologies. • These conventional materials were RCC and brick masonary in most cases but also included stone masonary in stone intensive areas (of Maharastra, Kerala and M.P) and CGI roofing in Assam. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

5. DPEP Initiatives • Effective Community Construction Process • Development of functional school designs- design renewal process • Identification and use of local resources - resourcemapping exercise • Cost- effective construction methodologies • Child friendly environment • Capacity building for State, District and site personnel and also community in community construction process as well as cos-effective construction technologies. • National cross-state sharing workshops CAM Toolkit for Engineers

6. Design Renewal process • Workshop at national level with pedagogues and Architects - Design manual • State level workshops with teachers and competitions for children • Appointment of state/ district level consultants • Design brief • Resource mapping exercise • Preparation of of draft designs • Discussions at national level on the same for suggestions and modifications • Final designs CAM Toolkit for Engineers

7. EFFORTS TOWARDS COST-EFFECTIVENESS • A savings of 10% on the civil works cost would amount to about 367 crores which can be used to construct 30,000- 35,000 more classrooms. • Efforts towards cost-effectiveness started with DPEPII • An amount of Rs.50 lakhs was allocated to all states as ‘Innovation Fund’ for the development of cost-effective constructions. • Experience of APPEP CECT programme was shared at the ‘Vidyalayam’ workshop - first exposure of states to CECT. • 1st Cross State Sharing Workshop on Civil Works at Trivandrum - sharing of ideas on Innovation Fund and CECT applications amongst the various states. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

8. 2nd Cross State Sharing Workshop on Civil Works at Patna - Innovation Fund was one of the Focus areas. States worked out strategies for implementation of Innovation Fund. Practical demonstration of technologies and site visits to Bihar CECT sites dispelled doubts on the practicality of such technologies in rural areas. • Engineering personnel of all states under DPEP are now sufficiently exposed to the concepts of cost-effectiveness and alternative technology. DPEP focuses on achieving cost reduction through all the above ways. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

9. COST-EFFECTIVENESS IN DPEP • Efforts towards cost-effectiveness in DPEP is not limited to Alternate Technologies only. Significant cost reductions can also be achieved through: • Cost-effective Designs: • Architectural designs can create a combination of various spaces like rooms, verendahs, pavilions and courts to provide more teaching space within the same cost. • Structural designs in many cases can be rationalised reducing quantity of cement and steel used. • Utilisation of local materials and skills in construction. • Proper site management and good construction practices thereby reducing wastage of labour and materials. • Involvement of the community in construction. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

10. Alternative technologies are also seen as a way of significant cost reduction provided such technology : • is based on local materials and skills. • is accepted by the implementing agencies. • is easily replicable in a large scale through regular implementing agencies. • does not lead to a compromise on the functional requirements of a child friendly school CAM Toolkit for Engineers

11. Achievements • New functional state/ district/ site specific designs • Use of local resources • Application of Cost-effective construction technologies • Exposure to state/ district/ site personnel • Trained and skilled manpower in the areas of community and cost-effective construction methodologies. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

12. CONSTRAINTS • Scale of the Programme - huge targets to be met within a scheduled time frame. • Centralised designs with little flexibility to accommodate local materials and skills had to be adopted for administrative advantages. • The construction programme require the mandate of the district administration and engineering departments, who are not always sensitised. • Government implementing agencies (PWD, PRED, ZPED) has to work within their Schedule of Rates, which usually does not include CECT. • A belief that ‘alternate technologies’ require intensive supervision beyond what is required for conventional construction. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

13. Excessive frontloading of civil works did not allow much time to be spent on experimenting and analysing CECT. Being a large programme with multiple objectives, the process of development of suitable cost-effective technologies has been a slow and cautious one. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

14. Repairs & Rehabilitation - DPEP Experience National level initiatives • Organised a workshop with National level experts and states • Prepared a repairs manual with suggestive procedure for repairs execution based on the experiences of states • Shared the manual with all the states in national workshops • Organised state level workshops to workout state specific strategies for execution of repairs CAM Toolkit for Engineers

15. Reasons for low priority: • Lack of clear understanding about repair works • Difficulty in generalisation of repair works • Non-availability of systematic procedure like new construction • Lack of effective supervision and monitoring systems • Difficulty in estimation - non-workable rates, site specific estimates • Apprehensions about effective utilisation of funds and quality of work CAM Toolkit for Engineers

16. Repairs: Correction/ rectification of defects/ damaged parts to bring the structure to normal condition Rehabilitation: Bringing the building into usable condition for which it intend for. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

17. Classification of Repairs: Repairs may be classified on two parameters • Financial • Technical Minor repairs: Repairs doesn’t require major technical input Major repairs: Requires technical input Special/ Critical Repairs: requires specialist/ expert’s advice. Financial limitation may also be included if required. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

18. Unit cost for Repairs: • This may not be uniform for all school buildings. This may vary depending upon type of repair and number of classrooms required repairs. • Unit cost may be fixed per classroom instead of school • If the cost of repairs exceeding the 50% unit cost of new classroom, it is suggestable to go for new construction than repair. CAM Toolkit for Engineers

19. Implementation process: • Identification Schools required repairs may be identified by • Using existing data • Undertaking surveys (infrastructure plans) • Non-Technical • Technical • Prioritisation This may be on the basis of • Need (Enrollment, no. of classrooms available and no. of classrooms in good condition) • Urgency of repair • Girls school/ Girls enrollment • Area/ locality (Rural/ Urban/ Tribal) • Community involvement • Natural calamity (Earthquake, cyclone etc.) CAM Toolkit for Engineers

20. Estimation • With the help of VEC/ Community for minor repairs • With the help of technical people for major and special repairs (Site specific child friendly elements must be considered while preparing repairs estimate) • Implementation (similar to community construction process) • Supervision and Monitoring • SPO • DPO • Engineers • BRC & CRC • VEC CAM Toolkit for Engineers

21. Gujarat Experience: • First time Gujarat established procedure for execution of repair works • Undertaken identification/ technical survey • Estimation procedure - Site specific estimates, Prepared SOR based on market rates • Established effective supervision & monitoring process with the help of technical and non-technical personnel CAM Toolkit for Engineers

22. Gujarat Experience: Earth quake Reconstruction programme • DPEP, Gujarat has been given the reponsibility of repairs & rehabilitation and reconstruction of all primary schools in earthquake effected areas. • Rapid damage assessment survey and estimation with the help of CEPT, Ahmedabad • Around 200 engineers have been hired and trained in community construction process and repairs execution & retrofitting techniques and CECT. • Major part of the work has been completed successfully. CAM Toolkit for Engineers