Implementation of IT in Education Segment

IT for Implementation of  Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

1. OVERVIEW: SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN  

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is centralized focused step taken by Central Government to universalize education in general by community-ownership of the school system. It is a response to the global demand for superior quality of human resource, services and other products as basic deliverable that India can offer meaningfully while being able to face international competition. The SSA program is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode.

1.1  WHAT IS SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

• A program with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.
• Ability to measure the quality and success of the education being imparted  
• An opportunity for promoting Government’s social obligation to population deserving basic human justice in addition to basic education.
• An effort at effectively involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools.
• A partnership between the Central, State and the local government.
• An opportunity for States to develop their own vision of elementary education

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the 6 to 14 age group by 2010. It is also to Improve and -reduce the gaps within education system existing due to social, regional and gender divides.

§  Gathering the relevant data and analyzing the same, taking corrective measures to improve All children in school, Education Guarantee Centre, Alternate School, ' Back-to-School' camp by 2003; (Was planned)

§  All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007 (Partially achieved by some of the States)

§  All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010  

§  Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life

§  Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010 .(Statistics showing improvement)

§  Universal retention by 2010  

- Ensure Enrollment of 1. SC/ST possible student population 2. Female possible student Population 3. Female Adult illiterate possible Population 4. Rest of the possible student population 5. Also provide Attention to special children and their needs and 6. Reduce Drop out rate.

1.3  SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN AS A FRAMEWORK AND AS A PROGRAMME

As a part of this drive Government has allocated certain budget for all the states and Central Territories. The budgets depend upon the various parameters linked with necessity and requirements of each State.  State is supposed to allocate 30% and Central is supposed to allocate 70%.

In addition various other educational programs which have been functional in recent past are too targeting the sometimes same sometimes exclusive population. For eg.

• Mahila Samakhya : Education ,literacy program meant for adult women
• Kasturba Gandhi Bal Vikas : Education program targeted towards female population
• Special program targeted towards SC/ST population of the state
• National Program for Education for Girls (Special focus on Elementary Level)

1.4 IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES

The funding pattern becomes more complex as multiple programs target population partially covered by other programs and partially exclusive. Also funding organizations differ from program to program.Funding Organization can be mainly Central Govt, State Govt , UN Funded schemes/programs, NGOs. Each of the funding organization too has its own objectives and key result areas. While overall aim is same, their objective and key result areas may not exactly match with those of SSA.At the same time implementation bodies can be Panchayati Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools. Keeping this in mind, for the success of SSA and individual programs under SSA umbrella, the Apex monitoring body at State level needs to track closely all the Key result areas and key performance indicators, to be able to review and revise the implementation plan continuously, while ensuring the optimal funds distribution. This is possible only with the help of Excellent, well tested, well proven IT Backbone and infrastructure.

1.5  IT BACKBONE

Hence SSA framework demands an excellent IT infrastructure to be in place to ensure. Funds are used optimally to cover entire Deserving population and each deserving individual is addressed and covered by appropriate program, funding body and implementation body.

Some of the key features of the IT solution being implemented are as follows

-       Trends in drop out pattern, category of female student and tracking  the reasons for the same

-       Patterns in SC/ST student population

-       Ability to detect never enrolled population ,to track reasons of dropping out,  re-enrollments

-       Co-relating parameters to detect patterns (eg. Funds allocated v/s drop outs, Funds spent v/s status of the project.)

-       Capability of providing snap shot of student registration at any point in time at various levels

(eg. Village, Panchayat, Block etc…)

-       Maintaining 7 level hierarchy through out the system.(eg. School, Village, Panchayat, Cluster, Block, District, State)

-       Funds usage, management per project in addition to project status tracking

-       Prevent intentional or unintentional misuse of funds.

 The same data and application can be used for tracking(As a part of second phase of automation). 1.Health of the students  2. Immunization records 3. Mid Day meal schemes

The objective of SSA is to track student population within the age group of 6 to 14, the system has been extended to account children enrolled in Balwatikas at the age of 3 . Also the students/children (Once registered in the system) will be tracked till the age of 18 years.

As one can see this is probably the first effort of creating comprehensive digitized data for the children population. This data can be repurposed for any other function in future.

The same data can be used very effectively by HRD and Welfare ministry to analyze and make the decisions regarding future schemes and programs and their Funds Allocation.

Once the data is stabilized over the first year of implementation Business Intelligence tools can drill down the data further to provide effective reporting that can help top government officials for speedy, effective and accurate decision making.

Refer to the diagram below, that represents the data maintenance and retrieval at various levels.

As one can see the data can be used fruitfully by many other government Departments for various purposes. The data can be repurposed and reformatted very effectively to get international grants in the areas which we have not been targeting so far.

The database can be extended in future to track the population beyond 18^th years to analyze their earning and employment patterns to plan their careers effectively. The data can help employment exchanges and in general many employment guarantee schemes which can be targeted much better. Also the data related to segment/sector/skills wise manpower availability can be used further to mobilize the human resource effectively for higher GDP/GNP growth.

Unleash the Unexplored and Sky is the limit

‘Madam Will you please write an article for us?’… two lovely young ladies requesting me on bright sunny morning, difficult to  refuse…Now Now Now,… while I say that am I being gender biased.. Would I have ever said two lovely gents(If two gents were asking me), ..Can one refuse any request made by ladies against a request made by gents?  ladies can be lovely but not gents… they can be handsome but  ladies can’t be …, And why are these ladies requesting me ? Because it is  women’s day? … Will anyone be requesting me for an article on Men’s Day? … Is there such a  day at all? Why not..(However lately we hear many men jokingly asking for such a day.. indirectly pointing fingers at  ladies..)

This incident really started a thought process in mind… So far I had been avoiding such discussions and not really paying so much attention…I always thought that thinking too much in this direction is trying to unnecessary open up Pandora’s box. As long as it is closed the wishful thinking is that it affects you the least..

At the same time diverting same energy towards achieving results and objectives is more fruitful.

Many times I have felt in the past that organizing  the debates and discussions is really a trap. Do women who are in L&T Infotech need crutches of policies such as  ‘assistance ‘ special concessions’ etc…

In case some of the women are taking advantage of such concessions, is it really affecting their output, Contribution Value Addition?  What is the general perception? Is general perception based on certain assumptions?

I think at L&T Infotech we are well past all these stages. I see so many ladies around me having good balance in life, professionally above average performance and at the same time happiness radiating around them.

I think most of them have found a key to success by striking a work life balance and management too recognizing the same by empowering them.

The traditional models of fulfillment based upon the sacrifice etc (Specially expected from women) being bragged about through the ages have definitely fallen apart. Women are becoming aware that sacrifice may not necessarily mean happiness for anyone and one should do it only if one wants to do it and if it is going to bring feeling of happiness.

Women have realized and are slowly realizing that sky is the limit and no one can stop them if they are convinced internally then  they can do anything. In fact it is essential for a woman to forget that she is a woman (in traditional sense) while making decisions. As in current professional, personal and social life scenarios  there are hardly any areas  or there are hardly any activities which any woman will not be able to do because she is a woman.

Today you name it and woman has already done it.

Right from going on NASA expeditions, Sitting in the board rooms, Washing cars in the darkness of early morning in the urban and rural streets, driving autos,  teaching children  in Anganwadis in tribal areas- That too successfully.

Having woman president, and woman continuously mentoring PM,  India is in the forefront when it comes to women politics at higher echelons.

Life is a journey and opportunities are passing by for women too. Time is limited .One needs to grab the opportunity on immediate basis and start reorienting. On this background,  It becomes necessary especially for women to continuously focus on aspects (In each slice of the life as personal, Professional, social and family )  which will Increase their empowerment and  the sphere of influence. One needs to decide benchmarks, freeze the milestones and derive plan to achieve those in each slice of the life.

It is very very necessary to develop a personal hobby and also few stress buster activities(to preserve one’s mental and physical fitness all through).At the same time  it may be worthwhile to look back and check whether anything needs to be discarded (Which was probably taken up due to misunderstanding-should be immediately corrected) as a matter of consolidation.

Medical journals keep discussing that women have tremendous sustenance power and excellent ability of multitasking etc. However we should decide when and how we should multitask and when we should stretch ourselves. We must not fall prey to usual tactics where certain qualities are glorified only to take advantage and exploit further.

Having the options, creating as many as possible, choosing and exercising them at right point in time should provide maximum sense of achievement and fulfillment.

 At the same time one must accept that a lot still needs to be achieved mainly in terms of exploring undetected women potential.

Unleash the Unexplored and Sky is the limit. The days are not far when Men’s day will  be a reality.