With the approval of a 500 million US dollar IDA-credit, the World Bank will pool funds with the Government of India, the Indian states, the European Commission and the United Kingdom, to support Indias National Program for Universal Elementary Education.
The total Project cost is 3,5 billion dollar for three and half years. The Indian Elementary Education Project, also known in Hindi as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), aims to reduce the number of children who are out of school by at least 9 million, narrow gender and social gaps and improve quality of education.
– When it comes to children not having access to basic education, even in a country as large as India, one child is one too many, says Michael Carter, World Banks Country Director for India.
The Government of India is committed to changing this picture, and we are happy to work with other development partners in support of this ambitious plan to achieve universal primary education, added Carter.
India has made remarkable progress in education, as evidenced by the decline in the number of out of school children between the ages of 6 and 14, from 39 million in 1999 to 25 million in 2003. Despite this accomplishment, India still accounts for one-quarter of the worlds 104 million out-of-school children.
In 2001, the Government of India established the National Program for Universal Elementary Education. In 2002, the Constitution was amended to make elementary education a fundamental right of every child.
The Program is a compact between the central government, Indian states, districts, and civil society to ensure that all children between the ages of 6 and 14 will eventually receive eight years of education.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is ambitious and goes beyond the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for education: it covers eight years of education instead of five or six, and the target year for achieving the goals is 2010 instead of 2015.
SSA was designed for a large federal system, with a decentralised framework for service delivery, where states, districts and sub districts are responsible for providing and financing elementary education.
The Program is already under implementation and both the Government of India and the states have increased the level of public expenditures to support it over the past few years.
– Girls, poor, rural and disabled children have benefited the most from SSA, says Kin Bing Wu, co-task team leader for the project. – This track record gives us confidence that the new Project will provide a major contribution both to meeting the governments own goals for 2010 and to meeting the global MDG for education, added Wu.
Specifically, the 500 million dollar credit will fund physical construction and extension of primary and upper primary schools, provision of training in social mobilization and educational management, and payment of salaries for teachers hired under the program.
To narrow existing gender and social gaps, the credit will also fund special schools and facilities for girls, provision of free textbooks to girls and children from scheduled castes and tribes, hiring of female teachers, and provision of grants to districts to support students with disability.
To improve the quality of education, this credit funds training for teachers, grants for small school repairs and maintenance, building of resource centers for teachers, parents and students.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan builds on the achievements of the District Primary Education Program (DPEP), which was funded by the Bank and other development partners, covering half of the 600 districts and 18 of 28 states in the country.
SSA, however, has nationwide coverage and extends universal enrollment from primary grades (grades 1 to 5) to upper primary grades (grades 6 to 8) with a focus on school completion at both levels.
– The main challenge will be to target effectively disadvantaged groups and deepen capacity in states with the highest concentration of out-of-school children, says Michelle Riboud, Education Manager of the South Asian Human Development Department. – The goal of partners is to provide support to scale up the National Program.
Riboud added that this operation is the first Sector wide Approach (SWAp) in India, whereby external partners not only pool funds with the government, but also will rely on the governments own rules and procedures in procurement and financial management, while working towards improving institutional capacity in the course of implementation of the project.
– Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan envisages total involvement from the communities, says Venita Kaul, co-task team leader for the project.
– Communities will participate by appointing new teachers, undertaking school improvement activities using the school grant, monitoring quality, electing local representatives to school committees and through engagement in parent-teachers associations, added Kaul.
The program is aligned with the Banks country assistance strategy to India, which highlights improvements in education and health as one of its key targets. It is also aligned with the Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015.
The World Bank, DfID of Germany and the European Commission appraised the project jointly and will be pooling in their funds to support Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
Of the total 3,5 billion dollar cost for the program, the Government of India will contribute 45 percent, donors will bring in 30 percent, and states will fund 25 percent.
The 500 million dollar credit from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Banks concessionary lending arm, has a 35-year maturity, with a 10-year grace period, and a 0,75 percent service charge.
For more information on the World Bank’s activities in India, visit:
www.worldbank.org.in/
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
