Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was launched by the Government of India to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children. Along with other parts of the nation it was started in Sikkim since the year 2001 and has been doing a lot in the field of education particularly elementary and primary education since its inception. It provides compulsory elementary education till the age of 14 as envisaged by the Right to Education Act.

While speaking to the state Project Director, SSA Mrs Mamta Thapa it was learnt that in the year 2001 a house hold survey was conducted to find out the number of unprivileged children across the state and accordingly under the education guarantee scheme numerous EGS were opened which were working under NGOs. Under this programme education to those children were imparted for two years, after which all the EGS were converted to primary school.

Mrs. Thapa further said that condense course books according to the childrens’ age and adaptability were prepared by a team of technical experts from Delhi and Guwahati form Education Consultant of India limited (EDCIL), who conducted workshops in Sikkim. Similarly books for the formal education patters were also prepared level wise; after finishing this preschool training the children were then shifted to normal schools in class (standard) as per their age. As apart from compulsory education SSA also aims to bridge social, regional and gender gaps, with the active participation of the community in the management of schools.

As per the new survey conducted in the year 2009-10 it has been found that about 814 children across the state are still out of school, children are either drop outs or have never enrolled.

Keeping this group in mind SSA has started a residential bridge course school since October 2010 and have enrolled 134 students and imparting education under this scheme. She also added that RBC is the first of its kind course across the entire NE region. To cover all the 814 children under this scheme the field work is going on she further informed. It has also been learnt that sixty four primary schools have been opened under SSA till date and about forty one such schools have been upgraded to upper primary schools, eight EGS have also been upgraded to primary school.

Courtesy: Sikkim Mail

 

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