14  FINANCIAL PARAMETERS AND UNIT COSTS         

14.1 Centre Costs

14.1.1 Per learner cost of Rs. 845/- and Rs. 1200/- respectively for primary and upper primary centres are inclusive of 5% administrative cost for State and District level and block management cost upto Rs. 2.5 lakhs for block.   For calculating the cost of a centre, items to be covered under 5% administrative cost would include monitoring and evaluation, administrative expenditure at district and state level and items included at para 14.3.   While, items to be covered under block management cost would include payment of honorarium to one cluster resource person (supervisor) for every 20 centres, travel expenses for cluster resource person, other centre and cluster level activities including Bal Mela, Competition and the items included at para 14.2 of guidelines.  

The cost of individual centre would depend on the number of learners enrolled.  However, over all cost for district as a whole would have to be maintained within Rs. 845/- per child per annum for primary level centres and Rs. 1200/- per child for upper primary level centres. 

The item-wise centre cost (upper limit) would be as under:  

An illustrative cost structure for a block having 100 primary centres is at  Annex VIII

* Training duration of educational volunteers may vary from 2^nd year onwards.

**  Where number of children exceeds 40 in a primary level centre an additional teachers can be provided.  No rent for the running of EGS & AIE centre would be allowed under the scheme.  The Community/Village Education Committee/Panchayat should provide the space for the centre.

14.1.2   For upper primary centres cost will have to be worked out carefully and funds out of 5% administrative cost will have to be used for meeting the shortfall.  For upper primary centre no separate block management cost will be available. 

14.1.3.  The actual break up of cost between the various items may be finalised by the State within the norms /ceilings mentioned in 14.1.1 and 14.1.2.

14.1.4  For non-residential bridge courses of varying duration, the cost norms of the primary/ upper primary level centre would apply. The honorarium of the EVs would be payable for the number of months for which the bridge course functions. For remedial teaching the honorarium of the EV should be reduced (below Rs.1000/- p.m. ) . Based on the number of hours per day for which the Centre functions.

14.1.5 The cost ceilings mentioned above would be applicable for all EGS/alternative schools/non residential `back to school’ camps etc. The state society would be competent to accord approval for all proposals for state or VA-run centres/projects within these limits.

14.1.6 Certain strategies e.g. residential ‘back to school’ camps, Balika Shikshan Shivirs for adolescent girls etc require higher unit costs.  Certain items of expenditure like food (for learners and staff); non-teaching personnel (cook, helper etc) provision for basic healthcare, rent would be allowed under such strategies.  For proposals that exceed the centre level unit cost limit of Rs. 845/- (primary level) and Rs. 1200/- (upper primary level) final approvals would be accorded by the Department of Elementary Education & Literacy.  The state society should satisfy itself about the need for such strategies in the context of the district plans for EGS & AIE and the unit costs also before forwarding these proposals to the Government of India.

14.1.7  The ceiling for any proposal under the EGS & AIE is Rs. 3000 per child per annum for centre costs.  This ceiling would be applicable also for proposals under the Innovative and Experimental component to be funded directly from the Government of India.

14.1.8  At least 3 months honorarium of the EV should be available in the bank account of the Panchayat/VEC/NGO so as to ensure that there are no delays in payments.  To ensure this, the final release mechanism and the procedures for accounting of expenditure reported by VECs/Panchayats should be properly worked out.  Often procedural problems in release of funds from the state to the village level lead to inordinate delays in transfer of funds to the school committees/VECs.  This must be avoided as it would undermine the decentralisation and the community’s control over funding of the school / centre.

The Panhayat/ VEC would incur expenditure on school committee honorarium of the EV, centre contingency, teaching learning equipment etc and maintain simple accounts for the same.  The utilisation certificate for the grants received by the Panchayat/VEC should be sent on a quarterly basis to the block/district office.

14.2 Block Level Management Cost:

14.2.1 The block level management costs would include:

1.  Honorarium of the Cluster Resource Persons (1 for every 20 schools/centres). A CRP would be paid an honorarium of Rs. 1500 per month.

2. Salary/honorarium of block programme officer/Block level resource persons for EGS & AIE.

3. Any support staff eg. Clerk/Messenger as per requirement.

4. Cost of 2 day monthly review & planning meetings at the cluster level (upto Rs. 30/- per EV per month).

5. Training of supervisors.

6. Contingency costs for the block level establishment.

7. Fixed TA to CRPs/Block programme officer or RP.

8. Organisation of meetings, visits and trainings of Block resource groups, seminars, feedback meeting of block level.

14.2.2  To allow some flexibility, the following items of expenditure could be provided either in the centre cost or block management costs or shared between these two heads (centre and block management costs):

• honorarium of CRP

• cost for monthly meetings of EVs.

14.2.3 The nature of staffing at the block level would be decided by individual states.  Current project level staffing may need to be discontinued.   The first charge on the block level management funds would be on honorarium and training of CRPs, cost for monthly meetings, TA/DA for CRPs, and other programmatic interventions.  The staff that can be provided at the BEO/BRC office for EGS & AIE should be decided after these costs have been provided for

The contingency to be made available at the block level, the fixed TA rates of CRPs & Block RPs would also be finalised by each state.

14.2.4The total block level management cost would be allowed within the following ceilings: –

1. 80-100 centres in the block – Rs. 2.5 lakhs per annum

2. 50-80 centres in the block – Rs. 2.0 lakhs per annum

3. 25-50 centres in the block – Rs. 1.5 lakh per annum

4.  For less than 25 centres - Rs. 100 per child per annum

• The block level management cost would be decided on the basis of the total number of schools/centres in block, including VA run centres.  Out of this amount, the VAs would be eligible for management costs @ Rs. 100/- per learner per annum for the centres run by them.  The balance cost will be available for the block level structure of EGS & AIE (of the state government).  

•  For VAs, project management costs will be admissible at a fixed rate of Rs. 100/- per child per annum.

14.3  District & State Administrative Costs (for State run centres only)

The following costs would be allowed under this head:

1.  programme management personnel of district level who would function under the District Elementary Education Officer.

2.   Organisation of meetings of District Resource Group, payment of honorarium to DRG/BRG members.

3. Programme management personnel at the state level who would function under the Directorate of Elementary Education.

4. Setting up of State Resource Group (SRG), their capacity building, field visit, education, seminars, conferences.

5. Salary of faculty members of SCERT or any other resource support arrangement worked out at the state level for EGS & AIE. It would be possible to identify an NGO/institution which could be provided some funds to support the quality aspects of the EGS  &AIE.

The district and state administrative cost would be limited to 5% of the overall proposals of any state including the centre and block level programme management costs.

14.4The cost for the preparatory activities of

1.  microplanning and school microplanning.

2. community mobilisation

3.  training of VECs/Panchayat/Mothers’ group

which are essential to the planning process for the EGS & AIE, would be provided from SSA.  For districts currently not covered under projects (DPEP, LJP, GOI-UN) or SSA, an amount of Rs. 1.00 lakh per district proposed to be covered under EGS would be released to the state society for school mapping and community mobilisation activities, provided funds have not been separately sanctioned for preproject activities of SSA.

14.4.1  Certain activities would need to be supported from SSA/projects (DPEP, LJP, GOI-UN)  e.g.

1.  Concurrent or annual evaluation of functioning of EGS & AIE.

2.  Exposure visits and capacity building of SRG/DRG/BRG personnel.

3. Classroom observation studies to review the functioning of the quality aspects of the EGS & AIE centres.

4. Evaluation of EV training programmes. 

14.4.2  If the state government decides to follow cost norms beyond those clearly specified in the scheme (e.g. pay a higher honorarium to the EV), the balance amount could be provided through state funds (not using funds of any other central sector/centrally sponsored scheme) which should also be routed through the state society for EGS & AIE.

VAs could also augment funds provided under this scheme from sources other than grants from Government of India with the condition that payment of honorarium to EVs should not be at a rate higher than being paid by the state society.  

EGS & AIE Contents

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