Improving quality of education, elementary to higher educational programmes comes under one umbrella

New Delhi, March 29: Improving the education system in India has been of prime importance keeping in mid the need to have a bright future generation. Under this purview, the officials have decided to merge three educational programes under one integrated scheme. The scheme will aim to improve the quality of school education by ‘focusing on the two Ts – Teacher and Technology’.

 

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to frame a new Integrated Scheme for School Education from April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2020.

 

The Cabinet sanctioned the proposal of the Department of School Education and Literacy to frame the scheme by merging the ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ for elementary school (Classes 1 to 8), the ‘Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan’ for secondary school (Classes 9 and 10) and the centrally sponsored Scheme for ‘Restructuring and Reorganisation of Teachers’ Education.

The government has allocated roughly Rs 75,000 crore for the two-year scheme, 20% higher than the funds earmarked for the three programmes merged.

“The main emphasis of the integrated scheme is on improving quality of school education by focusing on the two Ts – Teacher and Technology,” the government said. “The scheme gives flexibility to states and Union Territories to plan and prioritise their interventions within the scheme norms and the overall resource envelope available to them.”

The objectives of the Scheme, across all levels of schooling, are:

Provision of quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students;

Bridging Social and Gender Gaps in School Education;

Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education;

Ensuring minimum standards in schooling provisions;

Promoting vocationalization of education;

Supporting States in implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

Strengthening and up-gradation of State Councils for Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) and State Institutes of Education and District Institutes for Education and Training (DIET) as nodal agencies for teacher training.