Programmes and schemes of DPEP and SSA

1. PROGRAMMES
AND SCHEMES-
DPEP AND SSA

2. District Primary
Education Programme
(DPEP)

3. DPEP
• The centrally—sponsored scheme of District
Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was
launched in 1994 as a major initiative to
revitalize the primary education system and to
achieve the objective of universalisation of
primary education.
• DPEP adopts a holistic approach to universalize
access, retention and improve learning
achievement and to reduce disparities among
social groups.

4. • It also seeks to strengthen the
capacity of national, state and district
institutions and organisation, for
planning, management and
professional support in the field of
primary education.
•
• DPEP is based on the principle of
“additionally” and is structured to fill in
the existing gaps by providing inputs
over and above the provisions made
under central and state sector schemes
for primary education.

5. • The first phase of the programme was launched
in 42 districts in the states of Assam, Haryana,
Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and
Madhya Pradesh.
• Later the programme was launched in 80
districts of Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra
Pradesh, UP, West Bengal and Gujarat.
• The DPEP has made decisive impact on
increasing enrolment, reducing stagnation and
improving class-room transaction.

6. • While the DPEP has been operational in
backward districts with female literacy
below the national average, total literacy
campaign has started up the demand for
elementary education.

7. DPEP in Kerala
• The DPEP activities started in Kerala on 15th April,
1993. On this day, the Directorate of Education
organised a meeting of DIET principals and staff
representatives and educational officers at the State
Institute of Education, Trivandrum.
• Besides, the existing educational scenario, the
relevance of DPEP in Kerala were also discussed
extensively and three educationally backward
districts namely Malappuram, Wayanad and
Kasaragode were selected for the programme.

8. • These three districts have their own specific
characteristic features.
• Malappuram is the largest district having
highest percentage of Muslim population;
• Wayanad is mainly dominated by tribal
population;
• Kasaragod is a bilingual district.

9. • Faculty members from NIEPA, provided
outlines on different steps involved in
planning of the project. It included
specification of objectives; assessment of the
situation; specification of targets; strategies;
programmes and activities; costing; phasing
of the programmes etc.
• This was succeeded by other informative
discussion on different dimensions in formal
and non-formal education.

10. The basic objectives of DPEP
• To provide all children access to primary education through
either the formal or non-formal stream.
• To reduce differences in enrolment, drop-out rates and
learning achievement among gender and weaker section
groups to less than five percent.
• To reduce overall primary dropout rates for all children to
less than 10 percent.
• To rise the average achievement rate by 25 percent by
measured baseline level and ensuring achievement of
basic literacy and numeracy competencies and minimum
of 40 percent achievement in other competencies by all
primary education children.

11. Achievements of DPEP
• Decentralised and participatory planning and administration at
the district level, involving village leadership, NGOs, schools,
district and block personnel.
• Specific strategies to increase enrolment and retention of girls, SC
and ST students (identified as gender, caste and tribe 'gaps' in
primary education).
• Focus on enhancing capacities of teachers by providing
workshops for teachers and production of new teaching learning
materials to improve student achievement of learning.
• Administrative capacity building at the district and block levels.
• Collection of data and setting up an Education Management and
Information System (EMIS) [MHRD 1995].

12. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

13. SSA
• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or SSA, is an Indian
Government programme aimed at the
universalisation of primary education "in a
time bound manner", the 86th Amendment
to the Constitution of India making free and
compulsory education to children between
the ages of 6 to 14 (estimated to be 206
million children in 2001) a fundamental
right (Article- 21A).

14. • The programme was pioneered by former
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It
aims to educate all children between the ages 6
to 14 by 2010. However, the time limit has been
pushed forward indefinitely.
• As an intervention programme, it started in 2002
and SSA has been operational since 2000-
2001. 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.

15. • The expenditure on the programme was
shared by the Central Government (85%) and
the State Governments (15%).
• The Central share was funded by a number of
external agencies, including the World
Bank, Department for International
Development (DFID) and UNICEF.
• Some educationists and policy makers believe
that, with the passing of this act, SSA has
acquired the necessary legal force for its
implementation.

16. The basic objectives of SSA
• To study the status of students and teachers at the learning
centers.
• To study the adequacy of infrastructural facilities available at
the centres.
• To study the academic achievement of learners belonging to
learning centers with regard to adequateand inadequate
infrastructure and facilities.
• To study the attitude of the teachers towards learners and
learning centers.
• To compare the academic achievement of learners belonging to
learning centers with regard toadequate and inadequate
infrastructural facilities.
• To study the relationship between teachers behavior and
academic achievement of the learners.

17. Achievements of SSA
• To achieve the goal of universalisation of elementary
education in India, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has
been playing a pivotal role.
• SSA, a flagship programme of Government of India,
has been operational since 2000–2001 and as an
intervention programme since 2010.
• SSA was launched to achieve universalisation of
elementary education in a time-bound manner, as
mandated by 86th amendment of the Constitution of
India making free and compulsory education for the
children of 6–14 years age group, as a fundamental
right.

18. • To improve the quality of the programme, the
Government of India has taken many
initiatives and positive results of these
initiatives are visible.
• In view of the 26.0% illiterate population in
India, SSA programme should be continued as
a regular programme or till an alternate
regular system be evolved to achieve the goal
of universalisation of elementary education in
the country.