As a part of the SSA, institutional reforms in the states will be carried out. The states have to make an objective assessment of their prevalent education system including educational administration, achievement levels in schools, financial issues, decentralization and community ownership, review of state education act, rationalization of teacher deployment and recruitment of teachers, monitoring and evaluation, education of girls, SC/ST and disadvantaged groups, policy regarding private schools and ECCE.

     Sustainable Financing: -

                  The SSA is based on the premise that financing of elementary education interventions has to be sustainable. This calls for a long-term perspective on financial partnership between the central and the state governments.

Ø   Community Ownership: -   

                  The programme calls for community ownership of the school-based interventions through effective decentralization. This will be augmented by involvement of women’s groups, VEC members and members of the Panchayati Raj institutions.

Ø   Institutional Capacity building: -      

                  The SSA conceives a major capacity building role for national and state level institutions like NIEPA/NCERT/SCERT/SIEMAT/SIE’s. Improvement in quality requires a sustainable support system of resource persons.

Ø   Improving mainstream educational administration: -

                  It calls for improvement of mainstream educational administration by institutional development, infusion of new approaches and by adoption of cost effective and efficient methods.

Ø   Community based monitoring with full transparency: -

                  The programme will have a community based monitoring system. The educational management information system (EMIS) will correlate school level data with community-based information from micro planning and surveys. Besides this, every school will have a notice board showing all the grants received by the school and other details.

Ø   Habitation as a unit of Planning: -

                  The SSA works on a community based approach to planning with habitation as a unit of planning. Habitation plans will be the basis for formulating district plans.

Ø   Accountability to community: -

                  SSA envisages cooperation between teachers, parents and PRI’s, as well as accountability with transparency.

Ø   Education of Girls: -

                  Education of girls, especially those belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, will be one of the principal concerns in SSA.

Ø   Focus on special group: -          

                  There will be a focus on the educational participation of children from SC/ST, religious and linguistic minorities, disadvantaged groups and the disabled children.

Ø   Pre-Project phase: -

                  SSA will commence through the country with a well-planned pre-project phase that provides for a large number of interventions for capacity development to improve the delivery and monitoring system.

Ø   Thrust on equality: -

                  SSA lays a special thrust on making education at elementary level useful and relevant for children by improving the curriculum, child centered activities and effective teaching methods.             

Ø   Role of teachers: -      

                  SSA recognizes the critical role of teachers and advocates a focus on their development needs. Setting up of BRC’s/ CRC’s, recruitment of qualified teachers, opportunities for teacher development through participation in curriculum related material developments, focus on classroom process and exposure visits for teachers are all designed to develop the human resource among teachers.

  District elementary education Plans: -             

                 As per the SSA framework, each district will prepare a District Elementary Education Plan reflecting all the investments being made in the elementary education sector, with a holistic and convergent approach.  

Financial Interventions on SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

The assistance under the programme of SSA could be on an 85:15 sharing arrangement during the IX Plan, 75:25 sharing arrangement during the X Plan and 50:50 thereafter between the Central government and State government. Commitments regarding sharing of costs would be taken from State governments in writing.

 States will be required to maintain their level of allocation for elementary education in real terms on base year 1999-2000. The share of states under SSA programme will be over and above the base of allocation.

The Government of India would release funds to the State government/Union Territories only and instilments (except first) would only be released after the previous instilments of Central government and State share has been transferred to the State Implementation Society.

 The support for teacher salary appointed under the SSA programme could be shared between the central government and the State government in a ratio of 85:15 during the IX Plan, 75:25 the X Plan and 50:50 thereafter.

   All legal agreements regarding externally assisted projects will continue to apply unless specific modifications have been agreed to, in consultation with foreign finding agencies.

  Existing schemes of elementary education of the Department (except National BAL Bhawan and NCTE) will coverage after the IX Plan. The National Programme for Nutritional Support to Primary Education (Mid Day Meal) would remain a distinct intervention with food grains and specified transportation costs being met by the Centre and the cost of cooked meals being met by the State.

   District Education Plans would inter-alia, clearly show the funds/resource available for various components under schemes like JRY, PMRY, Sunischit Rozgar Yojna, Area fund of MPs/MLA’s, State Plan, foreign funding and resources generated in the NGO sector.

  All funds to be used for up-gradation, maintenance, repair of schools and Teaching Learning Equipment and local management to be transferred to VEC’s/School Management Committees.

  Other incentive schemes like distribution of scholarships and uniforms will continue to be funded under the State Plan. They will not be funded under the SSA programme.