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The objectives of
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA), the government
of India’s flagship programme for ensuring
universal elementary education, state that
by bridging gender and social gaps in education,
all children from the age group of 6-14 years
should have completed five years of primary
schooling by 2007.
In an effort to achieve
this objective, the government has focused
on the availability of school premises within
habitations. Access to schools is an area
of utmost concern. Encouragingly, statistics
indicate that 96 per cent of habitations
have access to primary schools, while 80
per cent have access to upper primary school
facilities.
However, a school’s
physical presence does not necessarily assure
social access to schools or the quality
of education in its classrooms. In consequence,
constructing schools within the stipulated
one-kilometre radius and developing the
physical infrastructure has not resulted
in a drastic qualitative shift in the education
system. Student retention, quality of instruction,
classroom transactions, and effectiveness
of teacher training are some areas where
the delivery system fared dismally.
In an effort to bring
about improvements within SSA, the state
has been shifting its focus from access
and infrastructure to enhancing retention
and improving the quality of education.
Individual states have taken up initiatives
to improve the quality of education, instituting
systems for large-scale independent assessment
of pupil achievement levels. The results
of this assessment are used for systemic
improvement like developing remedial teaching
programmes. A revived thrust on quality
standards complement other efforts to improve
the training institutes at the state and
district level.
However, care needs
to be taken to avoid an overdependence on
quantitative testing. Teacher education
curriculum and practice need to undergo
a radical transformation if the National
Curricular Framework is to percolate down
into our classrooms. The sector has a long
way to go in this direction.
The Trusts have long
maintained that the quality of the educational
system is of utmost importance, forming
a key area for initiating reform. The Trusts
believe that philanthropic agencies should
not be creating parallel structures, but
should engage with the largest player in
education, i.e. the State, to improve the
system by demonstrating change through field
projects, address key gaps in the sector
and contribute towards development of elementary
education as a discipline through grounded
research and reflection. This belief guides
the Trusts' work in the field of education.
Based on the recommendations
made in the
Strategic Review of the Education Portfolio
(2005), enabling the system to reform itself
forms one of the thrust areas for the Trusts.
Hence, the Trusts have focused their grant
making efforts within Elementary Education
through the following three sub-themes:
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