Cabinet approves Samagra Shiksha Scheme for school education for 5 more years

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved continuation of the 'Samagra Shiksha Scheme' for school education for another five years. Provision of training of master trainers for Anganwadi workers, incinerator and sanitary pad vending machines in all girls' hostels, addition of new subjects instead of stream in existing senior secondary schools, holistic progress card for each learner, and upgrade of all Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalyas up to class 12 are among the initiatives in the revised scheme.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the scheme would continue from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2026. Under 'Samagra Shiksha Scheme 2', financial outlay of Rs 2,94,283.04 crore, which includes central share of Rs 1,85,398.32 crore, has been made to implement the scheme. It will cover 1.16 million schools, over 156 million students and 5.7 million teachers of government and and aided schools. "In order to enhance the direct outreach of the scheme, all child centric interventions will be provided directly to the students through DBT mode on an IT based platform over a period of time.

The scheme will have an effective convergence architecture with various ministries and developmental agencies of the Centre and state governments," an official statement said. "The expansion of vocational education will be done in convergence with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and other ministries providing funding for skills. The existing infrastructure of schools and ITIs and polytechnics will be used to ensure optimum utilisation of the facilities, not only for school going children but also for out of school children," it added.

Provision of training of master trainers for training of Anganwadi workers and in-service teacher training for ECCE teachers; provision of up to Rs 500 per child for Teaching Learning Materials (TLM), indigenous toys and games, play based activities per annum for pre-primary sections in government schools and strengthening of infrastructure of schools from pre-primary to senior secondary (earlier pre-primary was excluded) are among the various initiatives in the revised scheme.

NEP 2020: Samagra Shiksha Scheme

"Specific training modules will be included under NISHTHA by NCERT to train Secondary teachers and Primary teachers. Transport facility has been extended to secondary level at up to Rs 6000 per annum. For out of school children at 16 to 19 years of age, support will be provided to SC, ST, disabled children, up to Rs 2000 per child per grade to complete their secondary or senior secondary levels through NIOS/SOS," the statement said. "Financial support for State Commission for Protection of Child Rights at Rs 50 per elementary school in the state, for protection of child rights and safety; holistic, 360-degree, multi-dimensional report showing progress and uniqueness of each learner in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains will be introduced in the form of Holistic Progress Card (HPC)," it added.

Under the scheme, additional sports grant of up to Rs 25000 will be to schools in case at least two students of that school win a medal in Khelo India school games at the national level. "Provision for bagless days, school complexes, internships with local artisans, curriculum and pedagogical reforms etc included. A new component about appointment of language teacher has been added in the scheme- components of training of teachers and bilingual books and teaching learning material added, besides support for salary of teachers. "Training for 3 months for inculcating self-defence skills under 'Rani Laxmibai Atma Raksha Prashikshan' and amount increased from Rs 3000 to Rs 5000 per month. Separate provision of stipend for CWSN girls at Rs 200 per month for 10 months, in addition to student component from pre-primary to senior secondary level," it said.

Setting up of assessment cell preferably at SCERT to conduct various achievement surveys, develop test materials & item banks, training of various stakeholders & test administration, data collection analysis and report generation; provision of classroom cum workshop for vocational education in schools serving as Hub for other schools in the neighbourhood; provision of transport and assessment cost for schools serving as spokes has been made and provision of ICT labs, smart classrooms including support for digital boards, smart classrooms, virtual classrooms and DTH channels have been provided. "Child tracking provision included for students of government and government aided schools. Support for social audit covering 20 pc of schools per year so that all schools are covered in a period of five years," it said.

The Samagra Shiksha scheme is an integrated scheme for school education covering the entire gamut from pre-school to class 12. The scheme has been aligned with the recommendations of NEP 2020 to ensure that all children have access to quality education with an equitable and inclusive classroom environment which should take care of their diverse background, multilingual needs, different academic abilities and make them active participants in the learning process. The major interventions, across all levels of school education, proposed under the scheme include universal access including infrastructure development and retention; foundational literacy and numeracy; gender and equity; inclusive education; quality and innovation; financial support for teacher salary; digital initiatives; RTE entitlements including uniforms, textbooks etc.

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