“The
poor want basic education for their children:
we shall make sure that the child remains
in school for at least eight years .We shall
also make sure that the child is not hungry
while s/he is at school…if primary
education and the nutritious cooked meal
scheme can work hand in hand, I believe
there will be a new dawn for the poor children
of India “(Budget speech, 2007)
The
Indian educational system is one of the
largest educational systems in the world
with nearly 87.23 percent schools located
in rural areas (DISE, 2005-06). Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan (SSA) is the national flagship programme
for Universal Elementary Education and was
launched in 2001-02 to reach every child
in every hamlet in the country in a prescribed
time frame.
The
passage of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment
Act (CAA) provided a legal framework for
the devolution of funds, functions and functionaries
to Panchayats. And consequently, Education
was placed in the purview of Panchayats.
PRIs as institutions of local self-governance
are mandated to make, manage and implement
programmes related to the universalisation
of elementary/primary education.
SSA
assigns greater importance to systematic
community mobilisation and creation of an
effective system of decentralised decision-making.
It defines a partnership between Central,
State and Local Governments, involving Panchayati
Raj Institutions. Engaging with Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan (SSA) enables Panchayats to use
all possible space in SSA to universalise
quality education to all children of their
villages.
Engagements
of SSA with Panchayats
Education
as one of the important functions of the
11th Schedule has been devolved at the Panchayat
level. Since the Gram Panchayat is the government
at local level, it becomes a constitutional
mandate of Panchayats to ensure effective
educational system at the local level. The
Tenth Five-year Plan proposes a shift in
the focus of planning from mere resources
to policy, procedural and institutional
changes which are essential for every Indian
to realise his or her potential. The Planning
commission has delineated roles for different
levels of Panchayats in the delivery of
primary education through SSA. Convergence
of local resources and institutions for
primary education has always shown better
results in terms of enrolment, retention,
curbing dropout rates, teacher’s absenteeism,
incentives etc.
The
key activities in the delivery of primary
education in rural areas include:
1. Allocating funds
2. Setting standards such as curriculum
designs and learning achievement level
3. Planning for physical expansion and quality
improvement
4. Creating assets –human, social
and physical
5. Operation and maintenance (O&M) of
the assets created.5
SSA
envisages participation of Panchayats through
education committees formed at each level
i.e. village, block and district. Some of
the key functions of these committees are
as follows:
·
Village education committees are given the
crucial role of identifying drop outs and
left out children so that no child remains
out of school in their area. On the basis
of the survey done by the VECs, a school
register is prepared which becomes the basis
of habitation planning done by Cluster Resource
Centre (CRC), again, with the participation
of PTA and VEC members.
·
Village school committees will monitor school
functioning. This means that they will be
entrusted with the responsibility of checking
the attendance of students and absenteeism
of teachers, maintenance of school premises,
and will be playing a major role in funds
disbursement for schools
·
The Block Education Committee which is headed
by the Block Panchayat Chairperson (though
in some states like Haryana and Chhattisgarh
it is headed by the Block Education Officer)
is responsible for block level functions
like disbursement of funds, preparation
of block level educational plan, distribution
of incentives, disbursement of salary of
teachers, recommends for recruitment of
teachers, etc.
·
The District Education Committee (may or
may not be headed by ZP chair) is responsible
for overall supervision and monitoring of
SSA at district level. It allocates funds
to the blocks as per the plans, appoints
and transfers teachers etc.
Provisions
under SSA to link with Panchayats: SSA’s
implementation framework provides space
for community participation and involvement.
This is provided through institutional structures
like: · Village Education Committees
(VEC)/ School Development Management Committees
(SDMC) - Gram Panchayat representatives
are members, Sarpanch is the chairperson,
except in Rajasthan) · Cluster
level Education Committees-CLEC (where Panchayat
Samiti representative will be member)
· Block Level Education Committees-BLEC
(having Panchayat Samiti representatives
as members, in some cases Block Panchayat
Chairperson also heads BLEC), ·
District Level Advisory Committee -DLC (with
Zilla Panchayat representative as members,
in some cases ZP chair is also the President
of DLEC)
On 6th November 2006, the Department of
School Education and Literacy under MHRD
had issued a memo for “revision in
the framework for implementation of SSA”
to ensure centrality of Panchayats in monitoring
and supervision of SSA.
Opportunities
for capitalising the potential of Panchayats
for providing quality Girl Child Education
·Panchayats
as units of local self government for rural
development:
Panchayats
are the constitutional bodies to lead the
processes of local development. The eleventh
schedule of the 73rd amendment lists 29
subjects where Panchayats are deemed to
have special responsibility, covering a
broad range of rural development functions
that are intended to be under their control.
Primary education is one of them.
·
Capacity to converge and mobilise funds
Panchayats
are the centrepoint of many developmental
schemes for rural development. Convergence
of national and state level programmes and
respective funds like NRHM, NREGS and Bharat
Nirman; Backward Region Guarantee Fund (BRGF)
etc can be done effectively at Panchayat
level to effectively complement the different
needs and demands of the area.
For example, NREGS (of which Panchayats
are the principal implementing authorities)
provides guaranteed employment of 100 days
for poor and unskilled people in the village
(Note that the services of government establishments
are mostly used by this section of people);
these people in the absence of any work
are forced to migrate or force the children
to earn their livelihood leading to the
children dropping out of school, frequent
absenteeism, irregular attendance, poor
performance etc. Preference for giving work
to these people can be done only at Panchayat
level.
·
Strong local accountability
mechanisms
Among
all the States, Panchayats have sectoral
standing committees on items listed under
11th Schedule such as health, education,
etc. These committees are accountable to
Gram Sabha and Gram Panchayat. These committees
comprise of members from different sections
of the village and include the mandatory
participation of women and dalits.
Gram
Sabha is the most powerful foundation of
decentralised governance which ensures that
elected representatives directly and regularly
are accountable to the people. Gram Sabha
provides the local forum to address issues
which affect the lives of the people. It
has the power to examine statements of accounts/audit
reports and discuss reports on the administration
of Gram Panchayats and their functioning
in a given time frame. These inherent mechanisms
of Panchayats ensure local accountability
for all the developmental programmes and
schemes.
·
Platform for participatory
inclusive planning
A
uniform three tier structure of Panchayats
(GP-PS-ZP) from district downwards provides
a people centred, more politically underpinned,
universalised platform for decentralised
planning. Planning for economic development
and social justice is a mandated function
of local governments and the District Planning
Committees (DPC) have a crucial role to
play in the process. Under Article 243ZD
of the Constitution of India, a District
Planning Committee shall be constituted
at the district level in every State to
consolidate the plans prepared by the Panchayats
and the Municipalities in the district and
to prepare a draft development plan for
the district.
·
Gram Sabha: a local
forum to overcome social and cultural constraints
for girl child education
The
prejudices and discriminations based on
gender and gendered norms of a society contribute
to abuses suffered by millions of girls
especially with regard to educational opportunities.
The Constitutional (73rd) Amendment Act
and consequent conformity state Panchayati
Raj Acts have great potential to challenge
traditional power structures through formation
and functioning of the Gram Sabha. These
Acts, though necessary, can play just facilitative
roles. Gram sabha is the only forum where
affirmative actions can be taken to overcome
social and cultural constraints affecting
girl child education.
Engagements
of SSA and Panchayats: Identified Gaps
Education
of girls, especially those belonging to
the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,
is one of the principal concerns of Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan. SSA has many provisions
and schemes for girls.
Based
on the experiences, the linkages, which
SSA has tried to build up with Panchayats
especially in terms of demarcating PRIs
as agencies to supervise and monitor SSA
at local level, reflects some gaps and ambiguities.
Theses gaps are quite evident in case of
schemes under gender component plans of
SSA (National Programme for Education of
Girls at Elementary Level-NPEGEL, Kasturba
Gandhi Balika Vidhyalaya Scheme- KGBVS).
A few of them are discussed below
A.
Panchayats as supervisory and monitoring
authorities
SSA
envisages itself as a partnership programme
between ‘central, state and local
governments’; the involvement of Panchayats
in supervision and monitoring of its implementation
was mentioned in programme implementation
guidelines. For schemes like NPEGEL, cluster
level committee is formed consisting of
presidents of VECs /SDMCs.
But
at the ground level, the system and processes,
which on the face of it, seem to be decentralised
with necessary clauses of “people’
participation”, are in reality, centralised
and controlled by the administrative authorities.
There are a few reasons for this:
Inadequate
devolution of funds, functionaries and funds
in primary education for PRIs: Ideally,
PRIs ought to have adequate autonomy as
institutions of self-government so as to
decide on local needs and priorities, design
and implement schemes accordingly. One of
the major operational aspects related to
implementation of the 73rd Constitutional
Amendment Act is the devolution package
which state governments are expected to
provide to the Panchayati Raj Institutions.
After
the national roundtables, state and central
governments pledged complete devolution
for PRIs to enable them to act and exercise
their rights as self-governments. It’s
been more than one year that Memorandums
of Agreement (MoUs) were signed and announcements
were made in the context. SSA has developed
mechanisms, which are tangential to the
constitutional powers of Panchayats.
In
the majority of states, Panchayats are treated
as parallel institutions by education departments.
Each tier of Panchayat has been systematically
sidelined from the key responsibilities
regarding primary education. There is resistance
and resentment from both Panchayats and
line departments, with their attendant sets
of apprehensions and confusions. PRIs assume
that their powers have been taken away on
the one hand. On the other hand, there are
line agencies who think that they would
be required to work under Panchayats. One
of the biggest reasons attributed to these
confusions is incomplete activity mapping
in the states. Ambiguities in roles and
responsibilities have resulted in more complications
in the system.
Ambiguous
jurisdiction of Education Committees
SSA
has created sub-committees for education
at village, block and district level. In
general, two types of structures appear
at village level. Firstly, there are states
where SSA has created committees which work
in parallel with the Panchayat Standing
Committees at village level (e.g.: Rajasthan
and Haryana) and secondly, there are states
where SSA and the Panchayat Standing Committee
for Education are the same, at least at
village level (for e.g. in Uttar Pradesh,
Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, VECs and standing
committees for education in the villages
are the same).
·
Village Level: Most of the states have departmental
committee(s) which work parallel to the
Panchayat Standing Committees for Education.
1.
In Haryana there are three committees for
education at GP level
·
VCC –Formed by SSA, responsible for
construction works at school ·
VEC- Responsible for supervision and monitoring
of education (recently on 3/07/2007, Sarpanch
has been nominated as president of VEC)
· Amenities Committee –Panchayat
sub committee for education
2.
Chhattisgarh’s Jan Bhagidari Samiti
(JBS) has a nominated member as its President
(usually nominated by Minister in charge
or by local MLA,). JBS has no direct linkage
or accountability to the Panchayat Standing
Committee for Education at GP level.
3.
In Rajasthan, School Development Management
Committee (SDMC) has reserved its posts
for President and Secretary for school teachers,
leaving no direct role of Panchayats in
school management.
Structure
of Education Committees formed by SSA in
some of the states
State
President
of VEC
Member
secretary
Rajasthan
School teacher
School teacher
Chhattisgarh
Nominated member
– by Minister in charge/MLA
etc
School teacher
Haryana
Sarpanch
School teacher
Himachal Pradesh
Panchayat representative
School teacher
Uttar Pradesh
UP-Sarpanch
School Teacher
·
Block level: Cluster Resource Centre (CRC)
/ Block Resource Centre (BRC) have formed
education committees at their level with
Panchayat representatives as members. Here
too the committees have no linkages with
the Panchayat Standing Committee for Education
at block level. The Block Level Education
Committee (BLEC) is controlled by the Block
Education Officer. With all these committees
in place, formed by SSA, the constitutionally
approved bodies i.e. Panchayats and their
sub committees, have become mere spectators.
For
NPEGEL and KGBVS, a parallel Cluster Level
Committee is formed for monitoring cluster
level activities and consists of the Presidents
of VEC/SMC of the villages in the cluster.
This committee has hardly any linkage with
the block Panchayat.
·
District Level: District Level Education
Committees (DLEC) of SSA are headed by the
District Collector whereas the Standing
Committee for Zilla Panchayat has nominated
the ZP chair as its chairperson. Both work
parallel with each other.
In
some cases like Rajasthan, there is a Governing
Council and executive committee at the district
level. While the former is headed by the
ZP chairperson, with the DPC/DEO as the
member secretary, the latter is headed by
District Collector with DEO and officials
of education department as members. In this
case, the executive committee does the approval
and planning of education in the district.
For
Gender component plans, a ‘District
Gender Coordination Committee’ is
formed in which membership of Panchayat
representatives (even female ERs) is non
existent.
In
practice, there exists either none or a
weak linkage for funds/functions and functionaries
between the three main responsible agencies
for primary education namely, the Panchayati
Raj department, the Primary Education department
and SSA (in states where they are different).
Except in a few cases, these three departments
do not even have any common communication
for primary education.
While
SSA specifies the regulations for conducting
regular meetings of the committees, experience
suggests that regular meetings are not taking
place. The meetings are called only when
there is availability of funds and a decision
has to be taken for their utilisation. However,
in comparison to village level committees,
meetings of block and district level education
committees are regular. This is in the case
of committees headed by the Block Education
Officer and District Collector/Commissioner.
Here too, meetings of Panchayat headed committees
(or Governing Councils at block and district
level) are called only at the time of fund
disbursement.
b.
Vertical accountability across the educational
system
PRIs
are the integral part of the local level
administration and hence all the institutions
working in the area needs to be accountable
to them. Mechanisms are reversed under SSA.
Vertical accountability flows for funds,
functions and functionaries. This is quite
pertinent in the implementation of NPEGEL
and KGBVS.
At
Gram Panchayat level, funds are transferred
directly to the accounts of VEC/SDMC, which
are operated by two individuals namely,
sarpanch and teacher (with the exception
of Rajasthan where teachers operate the
accounts). VECs are not mandated to present
their budget and report their work to the
Gram Panchayat or Gram Sabha/ PTA. Hence
the total accountability lies towards the
department from where the funds are coming.
Some of the other reasons which contribute
to a lack of accountability are lack of
coordination among different types of committees
for education, vertical accountability of
officials in SSA, and most importantly,
inadequate devolution of PRIs.
Lack
of meaningful participation in decision
making is another reason attributed to vertical
accountability in the system. Participation
is not a process of involving every one
and reducing all to a common denominator.
Inclusion of Panchayat representatives in
the committees formed under a scheme does
not amount to the involvement of institutions.
Neither can establish accountability mechanisms.
PTAs/VECs
have serious systemic design errors where
they are not answerable to either Gram Sabha
or Panchayats. No transparency is maintained
towards their functioning. Records are maintained
by school teachers whereas village school
notice boards rarely contain anything on
VEC functioning or PTA. Take for example
Child Tracking Registers (Gram Shiksha Register)
in Rajasthan which are prepared at the ward/
village level. Two such registers are maintained
–
1.
One containing the details of all the children
between the age group of 0-5 years
2. Two containing details of all children
between the age group 6-14.
Both
of these registers are available in the
school and every year the whereabouts of
the children are tracked and entered in
the register. The survey, on the basis of
which the child tracking register is updated
and maintained, is totally in the hands
of the teachers and at the local level,
no monitoring system is in place, which
can validate the updating of the register
in the prescribed manner.
Primary
education as one of the subjects in the
11th schedule has been devolved to Panchayats.
Certain funds, functions and functionaries
have been given to PRIs to enable them to
work as units of self-government. SSA’s
framework doesn’t comply with the
devolution done by state governments. And
hence creates vertical accountability in
the education department i.e. from top to
bottom. For example in Chhattisgarh, recruitment
of teachers is the job of the Panchayat
Samiti but once recruited they are accountable
to the education department as the Panchayat
Samiti does not have the powers to pay salary
nor take any corrective measures if it finds
discrepancies in the school functioning.
(Only 1 in 3,000 head teachers had ever
fired a teacher for repeated absenteeism,
World Bank, 2005). In Himachal Pradesh,
Village Education Committees are not accountable
to Gram Panchayats or Works and Budget Committees
of Panchayat, even when decisions are taken
for spending funds for construction in schools.
There
is greater need at the state level to amend
/restructure the approach and practices
of state SSA for enhancing the role of Panchayats
in elementary education.
C. Education Plans Vs Panchayat Plans
As
per the terms of Article 243G, planning
is a mandatory function of Panchayats. SSA
suggests a habitation plan, which has to
be prepared by teachers (often led by CRCs)
and members of PTA/community. The habitation
level plans should be drawn on the basis
of the micro planning and school mapping
exercise. This would be followed by the
preparation of a perspective plan for the
district.
In
both the plans, community participation
as envisaged is not in place (micro plan
and perspective). Teachers at the school
level prepare habitation plans without any
participation from the PTA/MTA. Micro-planning
exercises are rarely conducted for preparing
the plans. The plans prepared by CRCs are
never discussed or presented in Gram Sabha
meetings. Similarly, Zilla Panchayat and
Block Panchayat representatives/standing
committees are not involved in the planning
process.
It
is noteworthy here that this educational
plan has presently no linkage with the district
perspective plan prepared by District Planning
committees (DPC).
Recommendations
In
India, as the first deadline for universalisation
of primary education passed, 40% of the
eligible age group was found to be still
out of school. The Performance Audit Report
of SSA saw that out of 3.40 crore children
(as on 1 April 2001), 1.36 crore (40 per
cent) children in the age group of 6-14
years remained out of school as in March
2005, four years after the implementation
of the scheme, and after having incurred
an expenditure of Rs. 11133.57 crore. Percentages
of out of school boys and girls in the age
group 6-10 years are 5.51% and 6.87% respectively.
For the age group 11-13 years, the percentages
of out of school children is relatively
higher among girls (10.03%) than boys (6.46%)
.The drop out rates across the country is
39%, more than one lakh schools in the country
have only one teacher, or none, and the
country is short of atleast 50,000 upper
primary schools.
Panchayats
are the constitutionally approved bodies
which can ensure quality education at local
level especially for girls. SSA is the single
umbrella programme for elementary education,
which talks of delivery of education through
effective decentralisation and community
ownership. SSA has many special provisions
and schemes specifically for girls. It is
realised time and again that Panchayats
are given the backseat and there are some
serious drawbacks in the educational system,
which do not comply with devolution at the
state level
A
few recommendations are as follows
I.
Integrating line agencies for Primary Education/Elementary
education with Panchayati Raj Institutions:
Integration
of Centrally sponsored programmes (SSA/KGBVS/NPEGEL/Mid
day Meal) with Panchayats is important for
improvements in outcome and also for sustainability
of efforts. Some of the measures could be:
Strengthening
Panchayat Standing Committees for Education:
In
reality, despite the delineation of roles
by the Planning commission, PRIs do not
play an effective role in the delivery of
primary education through SSA. The management
still seems to be in the hands of SDMCs
and education officers. At this stage, where
a large number of schemes and programmes
with huge amounts of funds are being implemented
through Panchayats, State Governments have
an important role to play.
Some
of the immediate steps could be:
·
Recommendations of activity mapping and
dovetailing of resources for PRIs need to
be done at the earliest. Panchayat Standing
Committees should be assigned key roles
and responsibilities with adequate funds
even in the implementing of schemes like
NPEGEL and KGBVS. Interrelationship with
SDMCs and Panchayat Standing Committees
for “supervision and monitoring of
education “ should be outlined clearly.
·
Funds flowing from SSA at GP level should
be dovetailed with Panchayat fund for education.
This will help Panchayats to assess the
availability of funds while planning and
budgeting for the year. All funds must transfer
to Panchayat fund, if possible electronically.
·
Roles and responsibilities for intermediate
and district Panchayats should be clearly
specified with effective vertical linkages
between GP-PS-ZP. Departmental committees
for education need to be merged with Panchayat
Standing Committees across all the states
or alternatively, play the role of technical
committees or supporting standing committees.
Table:
Panchayat Standing Committee for Education
in different States
State
Panchayat
Standing Committees at three tier
level for Education
Village
level
Block
level
District
level District level
Rajasthan
Village
education committee
Education
committee
Education
Committee
Chhattisgarh
Education
,Health and Social Justice
Education
committee
Education
committee
Haryana
Sukh
Suvidha committee (Amenities committees)
Education
committee
On
discretion of ZP for constituting
any committee
Himachal
Pradesh
Village
educationCommittee
Social
justice committee looks after education
also
Education
committee
Uttar
Pradesh
Village educationCommittee
Education
committee
Education
and Health committee
Inclusive
Planning process
The
objective of district planning is to arrive
at an integrated, participatory, coordinated
idea of development of a local area. An
essential step in this direction is to ensure
that each Panchayat at any level is treated
as a planning unit and that the ‘district
plan’ is built up through consolidation
and integration of these plans as well as
by considering the development of the district
as a whole . For an inclusive process of
planning under SSA, recommendations are
listed below:
·
Panchayats should be treated as units of
local governance and not mere implementers
of educational programmes. The state government
should develop a methodology for participatory
local level planning and provide such support,
as is necessary to institutionalise a regime
of decentralised planning.
·
It is necessary to discourage sectoral approach
to development at the local level. Educational
plans should be a sub plan of the Panchayat
plan, which should reflect convergence of
the resources available for education in
total.
·
The Gram Sabha presently has full powers
for determining the priorities for various
programmes in the village and approval of
budget. Prior approval of Gram Sabha is
mandatory for taking up any programme in
the village. Gram Sabha should formally
approve habitation plans prepared by Cluster
Resource Centres (CRC) of SSA. For NPEGELand
KGBVS, approval should come from the District
Panchayat.
·
One of the major tasks of PRIs is the preparation
of plans for fostering economic development
and social justice. The district development
plans would have to be prepared through
the institution of the District Planning
Committee (DPC). Linkages of DPC and District
Education Committee (DLEC) should be specified
with more clarity.
Building
capacities and skills of Panchayat functionaries
for supervision and monitoring of educational
programmes
Panchayats
have been given roles in the supervision
and monitoring of educational programmes
at their levels. But the necessary inputs
to build their capacities in doing the same
are not given. Training of VECs is generally
done once in their tenure with three to
five identified members from the committee
being trained.
·
Community monitoring can be effective if
the community is made aware of the indicators
for monitoring. SSA has developed monitoring
tools to monitor VEC and SDMC but none is
in place for VECs to monitor school progress.
Here too, Panchayat Standing Committees
are not given any specific inputs to work
as supervising authority for education.
Similarly, PTA/MTA should be given inputs
to monitor learning levels in the school.
Also gender sensitisation programmes should
be introduced for PTA/MTA and Panchayat
members.
·
State Institutes for Rural Development (SIRDs)
and SSA directorates can play an effective
role in building their capacities and skills
in monitoring educational programmes. Panchayat
specific manuals and learning materials
need to be developed for handy reference
for the elected representatives. This is
also important for the time when Panchayats
need to take charge of the responsibilities
once SSA completes its tenure.
II.
Building Strategic partnerships
Evidence
at GP level shows that SSA has achieved
desired results in cases where a holistic
approach has been applied. Many enabling
factors like commitment of the State Governments,
commitment of teachers, regular funds, transparency
in the functioning of schools, effective
linkages with the Gram Panchayat and community
participation etc contributes to the effective
functioning of schools.
·
Panchayats can contribute significantly
to strengthen the functioning of the educational
system. The Planning Commission has clearly
outlined roles and responsibilities for
each tier of Panchayat to deliver quality
primary education. Memorandums of agreement
(MoUs) between Central and State Governments
demand commitments from the State Governments
to effectively devolve the 3Fs to PRIs.
A convergence and partnership approach is
required from the key stakeholders (MoPR
and MHRD) of education at all levels for
the effective functioning of schools.
·
Taking note of the recommendations of recent
CAG reports, some corrective action has
been planned by the Ministry of Human Resource
Development. The next phase of improving
delivery of elementary education will focus
around timely release of funds, monitoring
of reports and the insistence on utilisation
certificates. This will require improved
local accountability. Enhancing legal space
of Panchayats for delivering elementary
education is one possible way. Strategic
partnerships between SSA /Department of
Elementary Education and Department of Panchayats
on linking three tiers of PRIs is required.
This should be done at National, State and
District level. Support from civil society
organisations can add value and pace to
the efforts.
Inclusive
planning: Still a long way to go
Every
year SSA prepares the district educational
plan. This plan is prepared on the basis
of habitation plans facilitated by cluster
resource centres of SSA and prepared by
VECs. In Chhattisgarh, PRIA took the initiative
of analysing the planning process for education,
both at Gram Panchayat and SSA level. To
undertake this short study [done in three
Cluster Resource Centres (CRC), each CRC
supports 9-10GPs], the team organised meetings
at Gram Panchayat level with the panchayat
representatives and teachers. Discussions
were made on the activities and role of
the teachers for the next year. The proposal
which was prepared and approved in Gram
Sabha meetings for education was studied,
and finally meetings were conducted with
the Janpad representatives, Block Education
Officer (BEO), cluster coordinator of school,
Zilla Panchayat and District Education Officer
(DEO) to take stock of the plan prepared
by SSA. The findings were as follows:
·
There exists absolutely no linkage between
the plans approved by GP and CRCs for education.
· Standing committees for Education
at Village, Zilla and Janpad Panchayat have
no role in the planning process of SSA,
reflecting lack of coordination and linkage.
· Committees formed by SSA at block
(Chairperson nominated by local MLA/BEO)
and district level (chairperson-District
collector) approves the plans prepared by
CRCs · Education committees of
Zilla and Janpad Panchayat restricted the
responsibility up to the recruitment of
Shiksha Karmis. · A parallel
process is adopted for approval of the plan.
As soon as the block sends the plan, district
officers send the plan to the state level
and at the same time places the plan in
the general meeting of District Education
Committee (of which ZP chairperson is also
member). By that time though his approval
and objections have no importance. District
education plans have no linkage with the
district planning committees.
In
an intensive study of one of the CRCs in
village Bukrail (Block -Baloda, District
Janjgir), it was found that CRC had plans
to construct a school in the village where
only 20 children are of school going age,
instead of a neighbouring village where
almost 60 children are of school going age.
Upon investigation, it was found that Bukrail
is the native village of the district education
officer and therefore, a school was approved
for the village.
