MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE FOR PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND INTEGRATION WITH CURRENT EFFORTS

3.1 MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL

One of the basic features of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is that the mainstream structures will primarily be used for implementing the programme. A separate Department of Elementary Education and Literacy has already been created for this purpose. In order to facilitate convergence and a holistic perspective, a single Bureau of Elementary Education has been constituted. The General Council at the National level will be headed by the Hon’ble Prime Minister with the Human Resource Development Minister as the Vice-Chairman. The Chairman of the Executive Committee will be the Hon’ble Human Resource Development Minister. The Secretary, Department of Elementary Education and Literacy will be the Vice-Chairperson of the Executive Committee. The Joint Secretary (Elementary Education) will also be the Director General of the National Mission of Sarva Shiksha Mission. He/she shall be the Member Secretary of the General Council and the Executive Committee. The Directors/ Deputy Secretaries of the National Mission will also work as the Deputy Director Generals of the National Mission under the overall supervision of the DG. Each DS/Director shall have specific functional and geographic responsibility. The functional areas may include – i) Monitoring, MIS, Research, evaluation, and operational support; ii) Gender, ECCE, children with special needs, and special focus groups; iii) Pedagogy and capacity development for quality, Teacher Education; iv) EGS, alternative and innovative education, education of urban deprived children; v) Teacher recruitment, rationalization and other policy matters; vi) Planning and community mobilization; vii) Budget, Accounts, Annual Reports and Audit; viii) Civil works and development of school facilities.

The Under Secretaries and the Section Officers in the Elementary Education Bureau, along with the Office Staff, etc. will be part of the National Mission. In order to facilitate effective monitoring and operational support for MIS, a monitoring and operation support unit will be established from the existing staff and by appointment of a few need-based Consultants as per rules. The management costs approved for the National Mission will be utilised for engaging the Consultants and establishing the monitoring and operational support unit. The operational support unit will work very closely with the National Resource institutions providing the professional support.

The National Mission has a major role to play in developing capacities. In order to facilitate such a process, demand-based capacity development visits would be organized by the National Mission, in consultation with the State Missions. State Missions would also play an important role in meeting the capacity development needs of the districts as per their requirement. The professional and operational support institutions will also regularly interact with State Implementation Societies and districts to ascertain the capacity development needs. Flexibility in meeting the capacity development needs is critical to the success of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The National Mission has the role of disseminating good practices across the states. This will include encouraging Study visits and regularly publishing such good practices. The monitoring and operational support unit of the National Mission will respond to the demand from States and districts. It will have the flexibility of sending monitoring teams at short notice. The National Mission will constantly up-date lists of experts in functional and geographical areas in consultation with State Implementation Societies. The list of experts would be periodically placed before the Executive Committee for approval.

3.2 STATE MISSION AUTHORITY

There would be a State Mission Authority for UEE. All activities in the elementary education sector, including the implementation of the revised NFE programme, should be under one Society. This would facilitate decision making at the State level.  The mission mode signifies a focussed and time bound arrangement for decision-making and the presence of Planning and Finance on these bodies at the State level would facilitate this process. The General Council could be headed by the Chief Minister and the Executive Committee by the Chief Secretary/ Development Commissioner/ Education Secretary. Representation of Finance and Planning Departments on the General Council and the Executive Committee would facilitate decision-making. Department of Rural Development's involvement will facilitate the process of mobilizing additional resources under the rural employment programmes for school infrastructure development.  Involvement of NGOs, social activists, university teachers, teacher union representatives, Panchayati Raj representatives, and women's groups would help in ensuring full transparency to the activities of the Mission. Ministry of Human Resource Development would be represented both on the Governing Council and the Executive Committee.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan allows the engagement of professional on contractual terms, subject to the ceiling on management costs. However, the engagement of professionals has to be done after taking stock of the available manpower. The professionals have to work to strengthen capacities in the mainstream. This would require serious effort and possible restructuring of command structures in many states. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan would encourage all efforts at restructuring that contribute to effective decision making and efficiency. The accountability framework of institutions has to be considerably strengthened. This calls for adoption of strict selection criteria while posting officials to institutions like DIETs and SCERTs. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with States under the scheme of Teacher Education is already highlighting this need for priority to institutional development.

Management cost up to 6 percent of the total programme cost has been provided. It can be used for the following tasks - engagement of experts for specific tasks and specific periods; data collection and EMIS operationalization and maintenance; office expenses like stationary, telephone, fax, photocopiers consumables, postage, POL, vehicle hiring, TA/DA of functionaries; cost of persons allowed to be engaged on contract basis for the programme duration; recurring contingent and miscellaneous costs.  For specific tasks, experts may be hired for a given time frame, to provide support to the mainstream educational management structure. Before hiring experts, it will be mandatory for districts/states to assess the existing strength. There would be areas like MIS, pedagogy, teacher training, research and evaluation, community mobilization, gender sensitization, civil works, Alternative schooling, that may require infusion of experts. The actual requirement would depend on an assessment of the existing structure. In a state where institutions like SCERT, DIETs, etc are already fully and effectively functional, such requirements will be minimal. Experience of elementary education project implementation suggests that a core team of 7-8 persons at the district level and a team of 3-4 persons at the Block level is required for effective implementation. This team will be constituted by selection from existing staff, as far as possible. Full time workers on secondment (as in TLCs, with government's permission), deputation from other government departments, would be encouraged to work as part of the district and block level teams for UEE. After assessment of needs and existing availability of manpower, decision regarding contractual appointments would be taken in consultation with the State level Authority. All contractual appointees will be engaged for a specified time period by the State level Implementation Society (and not by the government) and shall work within the institutional framework.The selection process of professionals hired on contract (within the 6 percent management cost) has to be very rigorous. Selection should be done by expert committees specially constituted for the purpose. The management costs should be periodically monitored to ensure that it is within the ceiling of 6 %. Sustainability of such costs has to be taken into account at the time of incurring them.  An illustrative management structure had been provided under the District Primary Education Programme. Under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the effort will be to first identify the existing strengths and weaknesses of the implementation team at the district, Block, Cluster and habitation level. The requirement of additional staff will be worked out on the basis of this assessment. In the preparatory phase itself, identification of likely BRC and CRC coordinators from among the teachers should begin. In fact, this team should start functioning from the preparatory phase itself by deputation, if need be. This team of up to 20 teachers could provide useful support to the planning process at the Block and Cluster level. Normally, States find lack of sufficiently trained personnel to handle MIS and community mobilization related activities, from the existing staff. Gender related interventions have also required the engagement of persons on contractual appointment. While making an assessment of manpower needs, districts must assign the top most priority to engaging experts for MIS, community mobilization and gender related interventions. In context specific situations, engagement of experts on tribal education, education of SC children, education of children with special needs, etc., may also be considered. Similarly, in states where the institutional capacity for quality interventions is weak, engagement of experts on pedagogy and teacher training may also be considered. Effective management of accounts also requires effective training and occasionally strengthening of the financial management machinery at the district and the Block levels.

As regards requirement of vehicles, the policy should be to hire vehicles as per need, unless such a practice is not feasible in any particular area. Even in case purchase of vehicles is permitted, no new post of driver should be created. Such purchase of vehicles would only be as substitution of condemned vehicles. In any case, prior permission of the National Mission will be mandatory for any decision regarding purchase of vehicles.

The implementation team under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will work within a framework of decentralised management of education with full accountability to the community. The Panchayati Raj institutions and School level Committees will be involved in the programme implementation, along with the mainstream structures.

STATE COMPONENT UNDER SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

SSA provides for support at State level from the 6% management cost as also the funds for Research, Evaluation, Supervision and monitoring at State level. The cost of State level orientation and training programmes can be built into the District Plans at the State level. This does not imply that there will not be a state component. The State Component has to be integrated with the needs of the district. Support to SCERT over and above the support under the Teacher Education Scheme can come from the State component under the SSA. The objective of the State component is to facilitate programme implementation and provide support for capacity development at all levels.

Effective monitoring would also require a system of intensive review and planning mechanism at the State level. The State level team will constantly undertake field visits to ascertain the quality of programme implementation. Information systems to monitor progress with regard to SSA objectives, effective structures for financial management and audit, support to districts for capacity development, are some areas that require continuous partnership with the State level team.

The management structure under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan at all levels has to be accountable to the State specific arrangements for decentralised management of education. This would require full transparency in all activities. Since the effort is to strengthen the mainstream structures, SSA would involve investment for human resource development among the education department functionaries. Exposure visits, orientation programmes for capacity enhancement, working with Non Governmental Organizations, developing partnerships with elected representatives for universal elementary education, focus on special educational needs of focus groups, capacity for implementation of quality related interventions, will be integral to the management structure. Partnerships like the Total Literacy Campaign management structures within the overall Panchayati Raj/ Tribal Autonomous Council set-up will be required to build an effective management system.

The State level team also has to encourage diversity across districts and document good practices so that they could be adopted in other regions.

Management of Accounts and Audit has also to be an important area requiring attention at all levels. Proper maintenance of books of accounts at all levels, generation of financial progress reports, utilization certificates, financial and social audit of interventions, transparency about findings, systems of continuous improvement will have to be developed to sustain effective programme implementation.

3.3 ILLUSTRATIVE MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE AT STATE, DISTRICT AND SUB-DISTRICT LEVELS 

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan allows States/ UTs to have their own management structures, respecting the diversity that exists in these structures across the States. This, however, does not mean that decentralization will not be monitored. In fact, the effort is to empower schools to take their own decisions, within the overall management context of a state/UT.

The States have to set up the State level Implementation Society. In DPEP states, it is likely that the existing DPEP Society will be suitably modified to meet the needs of UEE. In other States/UTs either new Societies are being set up or existing Societies like the State Level Mission Authorities for literacy are being suitably modified. The linkage with the mainstream educational administration set up has been emphasised.

The State level Implementation Societies have to have effective monitoring and operational support units. Creation of an effective EMIS unit, a team of experts to provide support in specific functional areas, regular monitoring, supervision and appraisal activities, etc. will have to be organised at the State level Implementation Society. These structures could come up from the 6 percent management costs available under SSA. While doing so, States have to ensure that the educational mainstream has to be totally involved in programme activities. This however, does not, rule out the requirement for specific strengthening of the machinery by infusion of experts.

Each State would like to re–organize the State level setup in the mission mode. Like the National Mission, the State level Mission will have to carry out a large number of monitoring and operational support tasks. In the DPEP states, such support may be provided by the existing State level set up. State level Programme Support Unit will have to be established in non-DPEP States. This office, suitably strengthened, will have the added responsibility of implementing Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

District and Sub district units will similarly be set up by the State. As mentioned in the section on community planning process, creation of a district, Block and Cluster level teams comprising of governmental and non governmental persons would go a long way in establishing effective structures. The selection of the core team has to be very careful, as that would determine the quality of programme implementation. Setting up of EMIS team has to be done on priority in order to put in place an effective MIS. The infusion of additional contractual staff will only be after an assessment of the existing staff strength. Effort will be made to involve representatives of Non Governmental Organizations with proven excellence while constituting teams for programme implementation at various levels.

3.4 ROLE OF NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan conceives a vibrant partnership with Non Governmental Organizations in the area of capacity building, both in communities and in resource institutions. These partnerships will require nurturing through an on going partnership in activities. The Research, Evaluation, Monitoring activities under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is proposed to be done in partnership with institutions/NGOs. This would improve transparency of programme interventions and would also encourage a more open assessment of achievements. In the education sector, non-governmental organizations have been making very meaningful contributions. Work related to pedagogy, mainstreaming out of school children, developing effective teacher training programmes, organising community for capacity development for planning and implementation, expressing gender concerns, work in the sphere of disability among children, are some such examples. Their partnership is conceived in three ways:

• through direct funding by Central and State governments;

•  through funding activities by identified National and State Resource Institutions;

• through participation in community activities funded by Village Education Committees.

NGOs can discharge a very useful role in advocacy as well as accountability of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.   Under the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE), it has been decided to fund NGOs (other than experimental and innovative Projects) through State Implementation Societies. It will also be possible to record the contribution of NGO Projects in the District Elementary Education Plans, as their interventions would also be made in the DEEP. It will facilitate transparency of NGO activities also. Substantial partnership of NGOs is conceived through community organisations like VEC, PTA, MTA, SMCs, etc. This is suggested so that NGOs actually participate in building capacities in the community. Efforts to explore a longer-term partnership with NGOs with a well-defined arrangement for continuity will be encouraged.

3.5 MAJOR CENTRAL INTERVENTIONS AND THEIR INTEGRATION WITH SSA

There have been several innovative schemes in the sector of elementary education following the National Policy on Education in 1986 such as Operation Blackboard, Teacher Education, Non Formal Education, Mahila Samakhya, National Programme for Nutritional Support for Primary Education, State Specific Education Projects in Bihar, Rajasthan, UP and Andhra Pradesh and DPEP in 248 districts of 18 States.   It is proposed to integrate these in the fold of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in the following manner:

1. Operation Blackboard:
   
   Operation Blackboard aimed to improve physical infrastructure of education whereby school space was expanded and more teachers provided.  However, Operation Blackboard could not cover the entire spectrum of schools.  The SSA will qualitatively improve and expand the existing structure. No fresh teacher recruitment will take place under OBB once SSA programme is operationalized. Support for teachers' salaries under OBB will, however, continue as per the OBB scheme where teachers have already been appointed under that scheme, till the end of the IX Plan. Efforts to access funds for classrooms from rural/urban employment schemes will continue to be made, even though earmarking is no more applicable to these funds.
   
   

2. Strengthening of Teacher Education:
   
   The revised scheme of Teacher Education provides for a Memorandum of Understanding with the states in order to ensure that they receive priority attention of state governments, especially with regard to filling up of vacancies through a rigorous selection criteria. The scheme will be a part of the SSA framework till the end of the IX Plan, after which it will merge in the SSA programme.  This will supplement the DIETs, which provide guidance at district level. The revised Teacher Education provides for strengthening of SCERTs. Support for SCERT will continue under the Teacher Education Scheme.
   
   

3. National Programme of Nutritional Support for Primary Education:
   
   
   Evaluation of the National Programme of Nutritional Support for Primary Education indicate that the supply of food grains leads to improvement in student attendance while raising their nutritional standard.  It is proposed to continue the scheme with suitable modifications, in consultation with States.
   
   

4. Mahila Samakhya:
   
   
   Evaluation studies on the Mahila Samakhya approach indicate the progress made in empowerment of women.  This in turn generates demand for elementary education of girls.  There is a need to further strengthen these linkages with basic education of girls by giving women's groups a more active role in the management of the school. Though the scheme of Mahila Samakhya will retain its distinct identity at the State and the district level, it will provide support for the planning and implementation of SSA in districts implementing Mahila Samakhya.
   
   

5. Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education:
   
   
   Studies on the Non-Formal Education scheme have pointed out the lack of flexibility which impedes effective implementation across different States. Efforts to provide for a diversity of interventions have been made in the revised scheme that has been approved recently such as setting up of Education Guarantee Schools, Alternative Schooling facilities, Balika Shikshan Shivir, 'Back to School' camps, etc. The restructured NFE scheme called EGS and AIE will be a component of the SSA and be absorbed in it by the end of the IX Plan. SSA programme will provide planning and management support to operationalize the EGS and AIE scheme.
   
   

6. District Primary Education Programme (DPEP):
   
   
    DPEP districts indicate that decentralized planning and implementation facilitates community involvement in the process of school management. DPEP has met with varied of degree of success in different States.  Some have availed of DPEP benefits and have improved their elementary education sector.   A large number of teacher vacancies have been filled up in many DPEP states. Setting up of Block and Cluster Resource Centres has facilitated academic interaction among teachers. Development of new textbooks with the participation of teachers and experts has been encouraging in most DPEP states. All DPEP districts would also be part of the SSA framework. Efforts to prepare comprehensive District Elementary Education Plans will be made in DPEP districts. The focus will be on vertical expansion into Upper Primary Education and on consolidation of the primary schooling efforts.
   
   

7. Lok Jumbish Project:
   
   
   Under the LJP, evaluation studies indicate the positive impact of micro planning and school mapping in which the community is involved.  There are specific interventions for girls education through Balika Shiksha Shivirs and Sahaj Shiksha Kendras. While there has been improvement in enrolment and retention, the actual learning achievements have been modest.   LJP will be implemented in 13 districts of Rajasthan and holistic District Plans will be prepared for these districts also. LJP will be a part of the SSA framework.

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