COVERAGE OF SPECIAL FOCUS GROUPS

EDUCATION FOR GIRLS, SCHEDULED CASTE AND TRIBAL CHILDREN GIRLS' EDUCATION 
Education of girls, especially those belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, is the primary focus in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Efforts will be made to mainstream gender concerns in all the activities under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme. Mobilization at the habitation/village/urban slum level, recruitment of teachers, upgradation of primary into upper primary schools, incentives like midday meals, uniforms, scholarships, educational provision like textbooks and stationery, will all take into account the gender focus. Every activity under the programme will be judged in terms of its gender component. Besides mainstreaming, special efforts like the Mahila Samakhya type of mobilization and organization, back-to school camps for adolescent girls, large-scale process based constitution of Mahila Samoohs, will also be attempted. The selection criteria takes into account the low female literacy among the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women. 
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan recognizes the need for special efforts to bring the out-of-school girls, especially from disadvantaged sections, to school. This would require a proper identification of girls who are out of school in the course of microplanning. It also calls for involving women through participatory processes in the effective management of schools. Experiences across the states under Mahila Samakhya and under the District Primary Education Programme have suggested the need for a clear perspective on women's issues. The provision for girls' education would have to be situated in the local contexts and interventions designed to suit the specific community needs in this regard. Special interventions need to be designed to address learning needs of girls and relating education to their life. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is committed to making these interventions possible.

LESSONS FROM PAST PROGRAMMES LIKE DPEP AND LOK JUMBISH 
The conduct of various previous programmes in the field of elementary education, like DPEP and Lok Jumbish, have thrown up interesting and successful lessons on gender intervention for improvement in access, enrolment, retention and achievement of girls. Some of these, which can be adopted by the states in SSA, are as follows: 
Access and Enrolment 

  • Regular enrolment drives conducted in most States. In Uttar Pradesh, a 23 % increase has been recorded in girls' enrolment in 2000-2001 over last year's enrolment figures. 

  • Conducting special camps and bridge courses for girls to mainstream them. 

  • Setting up special models of Alternate Schools exclusively for girls - angana vidyalayas, bal vidyalaya, bal shalas, Sahaj Shiksha Kendras, AS cum ECE centres. 

  • Balika Skikshan Shivirs (Camps for adolescent girls) 

  • Providing formal schooling facilities in centres of religious instruction viz., Maktabs and Madarsas. 

  • Intensive mobilisation efforts among the resistant groups. 

  • Working in close collaboration with the community in identified pockets. 

  • Using women's groups (both formed under the programme and those already existing), VECs, MTA, to follow up issues for girls' education. 

Retention 

  • Monitoring attendance has been high on the agenda in all states where micro initiatives for girls' education have been taken up. Community involvement is high in this process, particularly in mobilising parents for regular attendance of their children 

  • Follow up of drop out girls to bring them back to school either through camps or bridge courses. 

  • Organizing retention drives to put regular pressure on parents and the school system to ensure retention of girls. These are not one time drives but are organised at regular intervals to sustain the pressure and take up corrective measures as may be necessary. 

  • In pockets identified for intensive activities, attendance of each child is monitored to prevent dropouts. 

  • In Uttar Pradesh, children are awarded graded colours for their monthly attendance - green for the best, yellow for the mediocre and red for the deficient . This system is showing results.

Children want to achieve the green colour. 

  • It is proposed to publically felicitate the children with good attendance records at local level functions. This has not only enthused the children further, but has also instilled a sense of commitment and responsibility among parents and guardians. 

  • Achievement 

    • Special coaching classes/remedial classes for SC girls. 

    • Creation of a congenial learning environment for girls in the classroom where they are given the opportunity to learn. This is being done through special inputs to teachers -either in selected pockets or across the programme districts 

    • Remedial classes being organised by VEC/MTA members for girls who are not faring too well at school 

    • Improved classroom environment to provide equitable learning opportunities to girls. Most interventions have been through teacher sensitisation programmes. There are examples of States that have tried to address the issue of providing congenial learning environment of girls in the schools/classrooms although the approaches have been varied. States like Karnataka and Gujarat have taken a lead in this process. 

    • Kerala undertook a study on classroom processes with a gender focus in 168 schools. This formed the basis for the teacher training module developed on this theme. Almost 28,000 teachers have been taken through this training and have been given reference material.

Planning and Implementation 

  • States have been sensitised on the use of available data for local level planning for girls' education with community involvement. 

  • Field-based trainings have been conducted in Assam, Kerala, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. States have been building on these skills and are concentrating in certain very deprived pockets. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu have also initiated focused interventions along similar lines. 

EDUCATION OF SC/ST CHILDREN 
The educational development of children belonging to the Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes is a special focus in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Every activity under the Project must identify the benefit that will accrue to children from these communities. Many of the incentive schemes will have a sharper focus on children from these communities. The participation of dalits and tribals in the affairs of the school will be specially encouraged to ensure ownership of the Abhiyan by all social groups, especially the most disadvantaged. 
The interventions for children belonging to SC/ST communities have to be based on the intensive microplanning addressing the needs of every child. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan provides flexibility to local units to develop a context specific intervention. Some interventions could be as follows:

  • engagement of community organisers from SC/ST communities with a focus on schooling needs of children from specific households 

  • special teaching support as per need 

  • ensuring sense of ownership of school committees by SC/ST communities 

  • training programmes for motivation for schooling 

  • setting up alternative schooling facilities in unserved habitations and for other out of school children 

  • using community teachers 

  • monitoring attendance and retention of children from weaker sections regularly 

  • providing context specific intervention in the form of a hostel, an incentive or a special facility as required. 

  • involving community leaders in school management 
    The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will develop context specific interventions, over and above the mainstreamed interventions, to tackle the problems in girls' education. All successful interventions so far will serve as the guiding principle for preparing such interventions. The provision of expenditure up to Rupees 15 lakhs per year given in the norms can be used for taking up innovative interventions relating to SC/ST under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. 

INTERVENTIONS IN TRIBAL AREAS 
The problems faced by children in the tribal areas are often different than that faced by children belonging to Scheduled Castes. Hence, special interventions may be needed for such regions. Some of the interventions, which can be considered, are:

  • Textbooks in mother tongue for children at the beginning of Primary education where they do not understand regional language. 

  • Bridge Language Inventory for use of teachers. 

  • Aganwadis and Balwadis or crèches in each school in tribal areas so that the girls are not required to do baby-sitting. 

  • Special training for non-tribal teachers to work in tribal areas, including knowledge of tribal dialect. 

PROVISION UNDER SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN 
All the interventions listed above can be undertaken in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The following provisions have been made for girls' and education of SC/ST children: 

  1. Interventions for Early Childhood Care and Education 

  2. School/EGS like alternative facility to be set up within one kilometer of all habitations. 

  3. Up-gradation of EGS to regular schools 

  4. Special mainstreaming camps for out-of-school girls/ SC/ST children under the Alternative and Innovative Education component. 

  5. Mahila Samakhya like interventions from the innovation fund. 

  6. Provision of process-based community participation with a focus on the participation of women and SC/ST 

  7. Provision of context specific innovative intervention for girls' education and education of SC/ST children - upto Rs. 15 lakh per intervention per year and up to Rs. 50 lakh in a district in a particular year. The innovative programmes can include: 

    • Enrolment and retention drives. 

    • Special camps and bridge courses. 

    • Setting up special models of Alternative Schools. 

    • Strengthening of madarsas and maktabs for formal education to girls. 

    • Community mobilisation including setting up new working groups and working with existing working groups. 

    • Monitoring attendance. 

    • Remedial/coaching classes. 

    • Providing a congenial learning environment inside and outside the school. 

  8. Training programme for community leaders to develop capacities for school management. 

  9. Setting up of Block and Cluster Resource Centres for effective academic supervision. 

  10. Free textbooks to all girls/SC/ST children up to Class-VIII. 

  11. Mid-day-meal programme to continue as at present. 

  12. Incentives like uniforms and scholarships to be funded from State Plan only. 

  13. Adequate Teaching Learning Equipment for all Primary and Upper Primary schools. 

  14. At least 50 % of the teachers to be appointed have to be women. 

  15. Provision for 

    • school and teacher grants for all teachers. 

    • 20-day in-service training each year for all teachers 

    • all children with Special needs 

    • community-based monitoring, partnership with research and resource institutions, and periodic feedback on interventions

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