Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Dream Project

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, programme pioneered by former Prime Minister Late Sh. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is an Indian Government programme aimed at the universalization of elementary education "in a time bound manner", making free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 6 to 14 (estimated to be 205 million children in 2001) a fundamental right. It was one of the key initiatives taken by Vajpayee’s Government then in 2000-2001.

At present, there are 19.67 crore children enrolled in 14.5 lakh elementary schools in the country with 66.27 lakh teachers at the elementary level, as per SSA official website (data year). However, its roots go back to 1993-1994, when the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was launched, with an aim of achieving the objective of universal primary education. DPEP, over several phases, covered 272 districts in 18 states of the country. The expenditure on the programme was shared by the Central Government (85%) and the State Governments. The Central share was funded by a number of external agencies, including the World Bank, Department for International Development (DFID) and UNICEF. SSA involvement comprises inter alia, construction of schools and additional classrooms and alternate schooling facilities,  free textbooks& uniforms, toilets and drinking water and proper sanitation with hygiene, provisioning for teachers, regular teacher in service training and academic resource support, and support for improving learning achievement levels / outcome. As per a press release by the Centre Government in 2013, the college dropouts have declined immensely from 80 lakh in 2009 to 30 lakh in 2012 as a result of success of the SSA. At present, there are 19.67 crore children enrolled in 14.5 lakh elementary schools within the nation with 66.27 lakh lecturers, as per SSA official web site.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://indianexpress.com/article/education/atal-bihari-vajpayees-contribution-towards-education-sector/