The Prime Minister heads the National Mission that monitors the progress made under the scheme. SSA is expected to provide relevant elementary education for children in the 6-14 age group by 2010. The SSA’s goal is consistent with the Constitution (86th) Amendment Act, 2002, that makes elementary education a fundamental right of every child.

The performance audit of the SSA carried out by the CAG in March 2005 mentions specifically that the SSA’s aim is “to ensure that all children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007 (and)... eight years of elementary schooling by 2010; bridge all gender and social category gaps at the primary stage by 2007 and at the elementary educational level by 2010 and achieve universal retention by 2010”.

In the period between 2003-04 and 2007, the SSA has received ex ternal funding worth Rs 4, 700 crore ($1 bn) from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), the Department for International Development, UK and the European Commission.

The SSA, meant to cover 192 million children, evolved from the recommendations of the state education ministers’ conference held in October 1998 to kick start Universal Elementary Education. The programme was launched in 200102. Allocation of funds under SSA, since its inception has shown high growth from Rs 350-crore in 200001 to Rs 7, 800 crore in 2005-06, and to Rs 11,000 crore in 2006-07, representing an increase of 41% over the previous year (2005-06).

The World Bank Aide-Memoire (January 2006) on the third jointreview mission of the SSA mentions that the target of reducing out-of-school children by 3 million per year is being exceeded; the number of such children has fallen from 25 million in 2003 to 13.5 million as on March 2005, it says, adding that “the positive trend will continue in 2006”.

The CAG report says that, “Even after 4 years of the implementation of the scheme and utilisation of almost 86% of funds available with the implementation agencies, the SSA’s revised target to enroll all children in schools, education guarantee scheme, alternative schools, back to school camps by 2005 was not achieved as 13.6 million (40% of the total 34 million children out of school) remained out of school in the 6-14 age group”. Clearly, a lot requires to be done.

There are 48 districts in the country where more than 50,000 children are out of school, the highest being in Bihar (20), UP (15) and West Bengal (4), according to the World Bank report. According to the CAG report, nationally, there were 71 children out-of-school per thousand. So efforts need to be speeded up in this direction. Gender parity continues to improve, with gender parity almost within reach at the primary level, according to the World Bank report. The girls to boys ratio at the primary level has increased from 0.90 in 2003-04 to 0.91 in 2004-05.

Another key component of the flagship programme of the UPA government has been the midday meal scheme, seen as key to retaining children at school, which was launched as a centrally sponsored scheme in August 1995. Central assistance comprised free foodgrain via the FCI and admissible transport subsidy. Initially most states got a dry ration of Rs 3 kg per person. The Centre earlier provided a cooking cost of Re 1 per day; it’s now been enhanced to Rs 1.50, with 50 paise coming from the state.

Under the scheme a cooked meal of a minimum of 300 calories is made available to 12 crore children in over 9.50 lakh schools. The allocation for the midday meal scheme has gone up from Rs 12, 531.76 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 17, 128 crore in 2006-07, signaling a hike of over 37%, according to parliamentary standing committee report (2006) on the scheme.

The 2% education cess levied through the Finance Act 2004 yielded, in financial year 200405, Rs 4,910 crore: in FY 200506 to Rs 6, 910 crore and in 2006-07 the cess amounted to Rs 8,748 crore, according to the HRD Ministry. The cess is used exclusively to finance the SSA and the midday meal scheme. During 2006-07, funds amounting to Rs 7, 500 crore will be required contruct 5 lakh much needed classrooms, according to the World Bank.

Considering the pre-eminence that SSA scheme that enjoys in this government’s plans, there is no reason to believe “there will be reduction in funding allocation” of the scheme, say Planning Commission officials. However, only time will tell whether there is delivery on promises.

jayanthi.c@expressindia.com