Lok Sabha Question No. 110 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-14
Subject: Quality of Education
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Dharambir Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 110 TO BE ANSWERED ON 14 th September, 2020

## Quality of Education

- †110. SHRI DHARAMBIR SINGH :

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the steps taken by the Government to check costly education system in the country;
- (b) whether  the  condition  of  education  in  most  of  the  Government  schools  is extremely pathetic;
- (c) if  so,  the  details  of  the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  improve  the condition of schools;
- (d) whether the Government has formulated any such scheme wherein children of higher officers of the district are also taught in Government schools;
- (e) if not, whether no such step is required to be taken to improve the condition of Government schools; and
- (f) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF EDUCATION

## (SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL 'NISHANK')

(a) to (f): The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, mandates that every child in the age group of six to fourteen years has a right to be provided  free  and  compulsory  elementary  education  of  satisfactory  and  equitable quality in a neighbourhood school across the country.

Education is under Concurrent List of the constitution, therefore, most of the schools and their regulation are under the jurisdiction of respective State Governments and UTs.

The Government of India launched Samagra Shiksha-an Integrated Scheme for  school  education, w.e.f.  2018-19,  as  an  overarching  programme  for  the  school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and  equitable  quality  education  at  all  levels  of  school  education.  It  subsumes  the three  erstwhile  Schemes  of  Sarva  Shiksha  Abhiyan  (SSA),  Rashtriya  Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).

Samagra  Shiksha  focuses  on  improvement  in  quality of education by providing  support  for  different  interventions  like  in-service  training  of  teachers  and school heads, conduct of achievement surveys at state and national level, composite school grant to every school for providing a conducive learning environment, grants for library, sports and physical activities, support for Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, ICT and digital initiatives, School Leadership development programme, remedial teaching for academically weaker students, support for Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat, etc.

Further,  in  order  to  focus  on  quality  education,  the  Government  has  taken following steps:-

1.  Central  RTE  Rules  have  been amended on 20th February, 2017 to include reference on class-wise, subject-wise Learning Outcomes.
2.  National  Achievement  Survey  (NAS)  is  conducted  to  enable  States/UTs  to identify gaps in learning outcomes.
3.  A  70  indicator  based  matrix  Performance  Grading  Index  (PGI)  has  been developed to grade the States/UTs.
4. NISHTHA  (National  Initiative  for  School  Heads  and  Teachers  Holistic Advancement), an Integrated  Teacher Training  Programme  has  been introduced.
5.  Learning Outcomes for Secondary level have been notified.

Also, the  National  Education  Policy,  2020 focuses  on  improving  the quality of  education through various  measures  such  as  introduction  of  New pedagogical and curricular structure, Early Childhoo d Care and Education, Foundational  Literacy  and  Numeracy  and  Transforming  Assessment  for  Student Development, Experiential and Competency based Learning etc.

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