R.Govinda National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration

1. EFA in India: Developments Since Dakar Evolving Strategies and Emerging Challenges Third Meeting of the Working Group on EFA UNESCO, Paris (22-23 July 2002) R.Govinda National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration

2. Policy Initiatives Elementary Education as Fundamental Right • Constitutional Amendment passed by the Parliament • A Central Legislation to enforce this Right under the anvil • Delineation of responsibility of various State organs - Central Govt, State Governments and local bodies • Setting the parameters of acceptable quality of education • Providing for remedial mechanism for redressal when the Right is violated

3. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan • Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) - A National Programme for Universalization of Elementary Education launched in 2001 • Goals of SSA: • All children in school, by 2003 • All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007 • All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010 • Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality • Bridge all gender and social category gaps • Universal retention by 2010 • Implementation in Mission Mode; headed by the Prime Minister and State Chief Ministers

4. Interventions for EFA • A number of interventions by the Government are targeting the individual Dakar EFA goals • Integrated Child Development Services scheme being universalized - Early childhood Care and Education an important component of the scheme (Dakar Goal 1) • US$ 3.3 billion estimated requirement for 2002-2007

5. Interventions for EFA • Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Movement for Education for All) launched with the aim of providing eight years of quality education to all children in age-group 6-14 by 2010. • Total estimated cost - US$ 20 billion (Goals 2 and 6) • A comprehensive plan for adolescents, specially girls, in the Tenth Five Year Plan (Goal 3)

6. Interventions for EFA • National Literacy Mission to provide functional literacy to all illiterate adults in the age-group 15-35. (Goals 3 & 4) • Achieve sustainable threshold level of 75% literacy by 2005 - US$ 1.3 billion estimated requirement for 5 years • Special schemes targeted at girls, apart from focus on girls in general schemes. (Goal No. 5) • Removal of all disparities, including gender, in primary (class I-V) by 2007 and elementary (I-VIII) by 2010.

7. Status of Plan Preparation • A Core Group under Secretary, Central Govt formed to facilitate planning and implementation & NIEPA designated as nodal agency • First Draft Action Plan prepared before Kathmandu summit in April 2001 • Four Regional consultations with State Governments and Civil society • Similar core groups in States under Chief Secretaries

8. Next Step • State Action Plans to be ready by August end – Guidelines Provided • Second draft action plan incorporating the State perspective to be ready by September • Consultation on the Draft Plan with States, NGOs, Research Institutions, Professionals planned in September-October. • EFA National Action Plan to be ready before year end.

9. Meeting EFA GoalsLooking Ahead Strategies and ChallengesNeed for Critical Choices

10. Prospects for EFA: Some Positive Factors • Changing Demographic Profile • Absolute number of illiterates declines for the first time in 2001 • In many states the cohort entering primary school begins to shrink • Increased Public Awareness on the value of EFA • Emergence of NAFFRE – a National Platform for Advocacy • Reasonably consistent economic growth • Ability to mobilize additional allocations for EFA from domestic budget • Emergence of a pool of Expertise on Basic Education in recent years

11. Strategies that have brought more Children to School • Modifying the traditional distance norm for creating school facilities • recognizing social and cultural barriers • Orchestrating Local Demand for Schooling • Village Education Committees • Mother Teacher Associations • Formation of Core Teams and Women Groups

12. School Mapping and Micro-Planning

13. Strategies that have brought more Children to School • More Open and Pluralist Framework of Delivering Basic Education has increased the participation level • CHALLENGE: Avoid Creation of a hierarchy of access and Discriminatory Provisions based on Socio-economic and Gender lines • This is essential for aligning Basic Education Strategies with Poverty Alleviation goals

14. Challenges that Remain: Need to make Critical Choices Tackling Inter-state Disparity • Around 75% out of school children are in 5 States of India • Challenge: Focus on these States - Move away from pan-Indian programmes to state specific programmes • Replace them with more locally designed, state government initiated activities

15. Challenges that Remain: Need to make Critical Choices Pre-School Education • But for some small effort in the private self-financing sector and minor focus in the existing Child Care programmes, this is non-existent • Girl children are doubly affected by slow progress on this front • It is essential that the Education Department comes up with a policy perspective on pre-school education and its provision through public and private delivery mechanisms

16. Challenges that Remain: Need to make Critical Choices Literacy Campaign • Tremendous impact initially on Building Education Awareness and bringing Women Empowerment issues to centre stage • But, India still has the largest number of illiterates • Challenge: Halting the Intergenerational spiral: Focus on out-of-school youth and adolescents • Reestablish public faith in literacy activities • Focus on life-skills and functional literacy • Link with economic life of the poor is critical • Combine with micro-credit facilities • Field-based community networks are extremely useful

17. Challenges that Remain: Need to make Critical Choices Improving Quality • Creation of decentralized support structures have gone a long way in improving teacher capability • Challenge: • Increased focus on school functioning in a wholistic manner • Imparting more contextualized skills to teacher instead of generic pedagogy • Improving subject mastery of the teachers • Focus on actual learning time and learning outcomes

18. Challenges that Remain: Need to make Critical Choices Financing of Basic Education • Increased investment is critical • but spend strategically focusing on the poor and underserved areas - not on systemwide generic programmes • Mobilizing External Resources for Basic Education • Current level is insignificant • Lack of clarity on the issue at policy level

19. Challenges that Remain: Need to make Critical Choices Financing of Basic Education • Effective Utilisation of finances is equally a challenging task • Need for building professional capability among Senior and Middle level managers in State Education Departments • Professionalisation of the education policy making and management set up

20. Challenges that Remain: Need to make Critical Choices Building Partnership with Civil Society • Significant involvement at the field level – decentralized governance (Panchayati Raj) and creation of bodies such as Village Education Committees and School Managing Committees • Challenge: Yet, role in critical decision making processes is lacking – Indian Democracy has the potential to provide more space for direct participation of people in education management

21. Challenges that Remain: Need to make Critical Choices EFA Advocacy and Political Mobilization • Commitment of the political Leadership at the formal level is quite visible – Acceptance of Basic Education as Fundamental Right • Challenge: But, Basic Education is still not on the top of the Political Agenda of the country • External financing is not likely to be an effective instrument for this. • International community could help strengthen the voice of the civil society as well as the professional capability to mould the public opinion • Build people-to-people contact and professional networking across north and south

22. THANK YOU