Secondary School Revamp Plan Ready Human Resource Development Ministry School Education Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Kendriya Vidyalaya Navodaya Vidyalaya

Secondary School Revamp Plan Ready

Secondary School Revamp Plan Ready

New Delhi: With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling for focus on secondary education, his Government is moving fast on "universalisation of secondary education" and is preparing a detailed plan to push gross enrolment ratio from 51.65 percent to 75 percent in the next five years.

As of now, only 51.65 children - out of 100 students enrolled in Class I -reach Class IX. For girls, it's an unhappy 45.28 percent while boys account for 57.39 percent. The Government wants the overall percentage to reach 75 by 2012.

A detailed presentation on Sucess (Scheme for Universal Access and Quality at the-Secondary Stage) was made by. Human Resource Development Ministry's School Education and Literacy Secretary Champak Chatterjee to the Planning Commission on July 9. Human Resources Development Ministry sources told Express that the broad contours of the plan have been approved by the Commission and the Prime Minister's Office, Planning Commission and Finance Ministry are examining finer points of the proposal.

The Government's plan revolves around getting an additional 90.3 lakh students enrolled in Class IX and X across the country. This, according to the plan, will require building of new schools (doubling the number of Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas), building 3,000 girls hostels in educationally backward blocks, recruiting over 6.5 lakh teachers and to improve infrastructure in over one lakh schools (ranging from drinking water, power supply and toilets to science labs, art and craft labs, libraries, computers and internet connectivity).

It's estimated to entail an expenditure of Rs 78,560 crore over the next five years.

The United Progressive Alliance regime's initiative comes after the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan launched by the National Democratic Alliance in 2001-02 saw children clearing primary and upper primary classes in larger numbers. This made the government think of infrastructure provisions for secondary education.

Sources said the Government is going to launch the Success programme on a "mission mode'' and the proposed funding pattern to be shared between the Centre and States is 75:25 over the next five years, much on the lines of SSA's initial five years, with the funding pattern for North-Eastern states being 90:10.

Secondary School Revamp Plan Ready

Related Web Pages

News Bloggs