Kerala leads in computer connectivity to schools

Following is an excerpt from a news report in Hindustan Times.

Kerala’s Education Minister M.A. Baby Sunday inaugurated the first phase of Internet broadband connections to 1,200 schools in the state.

The initiative is part of the IT@School project launched by the state government in 2003 for imparting IT education to high school children across the state.

“All the 2,800 high schools in Kerala will be connected through broadband Internet by June as part of the project,” the minister said while inaugurating the first phase from the State Secretariat.

“We are planning to extend the services to upper primary schools (between 5th-7th classes) as well. In the first phase, we will start with 38 schools in this academic secession,” said Baby.

The project is implemented in collaboration with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), which has endeavoured to give special tariff rates for the 2800 schools in the state.

“The security deposit, modem rental and installation charges has been waived. Each school has also been offered a nominal rate Rs. 5000 per year to avail the services,” said K.S. Sreenivasan, chief general manager of BSNL.

Currently, as part of the project, about 40,000 computers have been put into use at the high schools. More than 60,000 teachers have been trained in IT and nearly 1.6 million students have benefited.

December 11th, 2007

More primary schools being established

Following is an excerpt from a news report in New Indian Express.

The State Government will open 933 primary and 708 upper primary schools in the current financial year.

The new schools will be located in areas having no schools as per the national parameters of having one primary school within 1 km radius and an upper primary school within 3 km radius.

… 449 primary schools and 392 upper primary schools had already been operationalised and the remaining schools will function by January-end.

About 300 centres under the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) has been converted to primary schools while a few primary schools have been upgraded to upper primary schools.

The Government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 120 crore for the new primary schools and Rs 41 crore for upper primary schools.

Each of of the new schools will be given a financial assistance of Rs 4.80 lakh for infrastructure development.

The funds will be provided to the Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA).

The State has 34,953 primary schools, 3,979 upper primary schools and 12,376 nodal schools having both elementary and upper primary classes.

Two teachers will be appointed to each new primary school in the first year while each upper primary school will have three teachers.

While education volunteers working in the EGS centres converted to primary schools will be absorbed, preference will be given to local youth during appointment of teachers in these new schools.

December 11th, 2007

Orissa government doubles teachers’ salaries

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Henceforth, headmasters of the eligible block-grant schools will be regarded as secretaries of the school management committees. They will enjoy the power of the disbursing authority. The Government will send the salaries of the teachers and other staffs in the account of the headmasters for disbursement. Earlier, secretaries of the management committee received the money, for which various problems cropped up. The same principle will also be applicable for the ME School teachers.

The Government doubled the salaries of the High and ME School teachers. As the Government has not been able to provide full grants to the schools due to an MoU signed by the then Congress Government in 1999 with the Centre, it has decided to double the block grant amount given to the schools. Henceforth, a Trained Graduate Teacher (TGT) will receive a salary of Rs 3,330 instead of Rs 1,579. A Sanskrit and a Hindi teacher will receive salary of Rs 2,997 instead of Rs 1,523. A Physical Education Teacher (PET) will get Rs 2,398 instead of Rs 1,218, a clerk Rs 2,031 instead of Rs 1,072 and a Peon Rs 1,698 instead of Rs 846.

Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai said teachers and staff of the 100 girls’ high schools, high schools of 169 Gram Panchayats (GPs), 102 ‘Left’ High Schools and another 59 High Schools would benefit. "The Government will have to bear an additional expenditure of Rs 167 crore on this account only," he said.

He further said the ME Schools would receive a block-grant of nearly Rs 68 lakh instead of Rs 33 lakh. Those ME Schools and High Schools eligible to receive block-grant by June, 2004, will come under the block-grant-fold. All the decisions would come into effect from April 2008.

11 comments December 5th, 2007

Orissa not taking adavantage of the Ashram School scheme

Ashram Schools in tribal areas is another central govt. scheme. However, as the following PIB shows, Orissa has not been taking advantage of it in recent years. (Orissa did take advantage of it in the past.) Its not clear if this is because Orissa decided to focus more on the Ekalavya Vidyalayas as in case of the Ekalavya Vidyalayas the funding is 100% from the central govt. while in case of the Ashram Schools the funding is 50% central and 50% state. In any case, here is the recent PIB on Ashram Schools.

Ministry releases grants to the States for construction of Ashram School in  Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) Areas, boys and girls hostels and Post Matric Scholarship is a continuous process. The grant-in-aid is released only if the proposals are complete in all respects including availability of land free of cost, confirmation about availability of matching share in the State budget, Utilization Certificate for grants released in previous years and physical progress reports in respect of proposals sanctioned in previous years and the availability of funds.  This was stated by the Minister for Tribal Affairs, Shri P.R. Kyndiah in a reply to a question by Shri M.A.M. Ramswamy in Rajya Sabha today.

The scheme-wise and year-wise funds released to States/UTs including Karnataka during last three years are as follows:

Grant in aid released under the scheme of Ashram Schools in TSP Areas

S.No.	Name of State/UT	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
		Amount	Amount	Amount
1.	Gujarat	86.49	200.00	156.52
2.	Madhya Pd.	300.00	200.00	624.01
3.	Karnataka	77.51	150.00	400.00
4.	Maharashtra	86.00	50.00	256.71
5.	Chattishgarh	0	0	112.76
	Total	550.00	600.00	1550.00

Grant released under the scheme of Boys/Girls Hostel to various State Govt. during the last three years.

(Rs. in lakh)

S. No.	Name of State/UT	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
		Amount	Amount	Amount
1.	Andhra Pd.	0	0	120.00
2.	Gujarat	67.60	0	0
3.	Himachal Pd.	0	108.18	82.39
4.	Madhya Pd.	300.00	724.00	305.00
5.	Manipur	0	142.70	123.51
6.	Meghalaya	0	0	200.00
7.	Orissa	0	0	56.50
8.	Rajasthan	0	0	190.50
9.	West Bengal	0	6.71	0
10.	J & K	0	0	204.99
11.	Karnataka	120.00	86.00	170.79
12.	Maharashtra	242.04	194.46	0
13.	Nagaland	151.00	116.52	221.09
14.	IIT Delhi	234.88	64.21	440.91
15.	Jharkhand	98.86	0	250.16
16.	Chattishgarh	0	0	165.00
17.	Arunachal Pradesh	20.50	21.43	180.07
18.	Punjab University, Chandigarh	65.12	100.79	0
19.	Delhi University	0	0	100.00
	Total	1300.00	1565.00	2810.91

December 3rd, 2007

Increased funding for K-12 schools and salary increases for teachers announced by CM

Following is an excerpt from a report in Kalinga Times.

As per Patnaik’s announcement, the quantum of block grant being paid to a private high school which has employed the required number of teaching and non-teaching staff as per prescribed yardstick and duly approved by the competent authority will be enhanced form the existing level of Rs 1, 68,912 per annum to Rs 3,65,628 per annum. The amount included the provision for an additional peon/watchman per institution over and above the existing staffing pattern for block grant high school, he said.

Similarly, the amount of the block grant being paid to each Upper Primary/Middle English school will be enhanced from the existing level of Rs 33,564 per annum to Rs 68,736 per annum.

Patnaik further announced that the consolidated remuneration of teachers engaged on contract basis in different government high schools will be increased for trained graduate teachers (TGTs) from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,000 per month and for non-TGT Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 per month.

The announcements would be effective from April 1, 2008, Patnaik said.

The educational institutions which were eligible as on June 1, 2002 but had been left out for availing block grant will now be considered for sanction of block grant, Patnaik said.

The educational institutions which had become eligible for availing block grant after June 1, 2002 and before June 1, 2004 will be considered for sanction of block grant subject to the condition that there was no high school in the said gram panchayat receiving such grant-in-aid/block grant.

With regard to the demands of the Shikshya Sahayaks, the Chief Minister announced that the Shikshya Sahayaks who had completed six years of continuous and satisfactory service will become eligible to be regular primary school teachers under Zilla Parishad. This will become effective from April 1, 2008 without any retrospective benefit.

The Shikshya Sahayaks who were getting Rs 2,000 honorarium per month will be given Rs 3,000 per month. After completion of three years of continuous service, their honorarium will be enhanced to Rs 3,500 per month. This benefit will be effective from December 1 this year, Patnaik added.

1 comment November 28th, 2007

PIB report: “Unspent amount in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33297.

State-wise details of  Central funds released during the years 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 & 2007-08 under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA) and unspent balance available with State/UTs as on 31.03.2007 is given at Annexure. Unspent balances remaining out of SSA grants at the end of a financial year are adjusted in grants payable in next financial year.

            ANNEXURE

State-wise Central funds released during the years 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 upto November 2007 alongwith unspent balances brought forward as on 31.03.2007

(Rupees in lakh)

This information was given by Shri M.M.A Fatmi, Minister of Human Resources Development in the Lok Sabha today in a written reply to a question by Shri Raghuveer Singh Koshal.

November 27th, 2007

PIB report on promotion of education for girls

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33296.

A statement showing enrolment of Boys and Girls during 2004-05 at Primary, Upper Primary and Secondary Schools level as per Selected Educational Statistics 2004-05 is given in Annexure-I.

The Government of India has launched two focused interventions – National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Education (NPEGEL) to reach out to never enrolled/dropout girls, working girls, older girls who have not completed elementary education and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) for girls from marginalized social groups.

Under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, free textbooks are provided to all girls and SC & ST children. In addition, depending on local requirements, State Governments have innovation funds under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) for providing uniforms to girls where necessary. Details of assistance provided to States during each of the last three years under NPEGEL and KGBV are given at Annexure-II.

Annexure-I

Annexure-I referred in reply to part (a) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Qeustion No.1559 to be answered on 27.11.2007 asked by Shri Ravi Prakash Verma. regarding Promotion for Education for Girls.

See http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33296.

Annexure-II referred in reply to part(c) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No.1559 to be answered on 27.11.2007 asked by Shri Ravi Prakash Verma regarding Promotion of Education for Girls

No. of KGBVs sanctioned and funds released by Government of India under Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya scheme

See http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33296.

1 comment November 27th, 2007

PIB report on Kasturaba Gandhi Balika Vidayalayas

The following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33292.

The Government of India has sanctioned 2180 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas  in the country till March, 2007. A list of the KGBVs sanctioned, operational and girls enrolled in them is annexed.

            A National Evaluation of the KGBV scheme was conducted through independent experts on girls education in February, 2007 covering 12 States who have found the overall working of the scheme satisfactory. The Report of the National Evaluation is available on website www.ssa.nic.in .

1.

Annexure

Statement showing the number of KGBVs sanctioned, operational and girls enrolled in them State and Union Territory wise as on 31^st October, 2007

This information was given by Shri M.M.A Fatmi, Minister of Human Resources Development in the Lok Sabha today in a written reply to a question by Shri Tukaram Ganpatrao Renge Patil and Shri Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy.

November 27th, 2007

Lots of unfilled positions in Orissa colleges: Samaja

November 27th, 2007

PIB: State-wise literacy rates of all persons, males and females as of 2001 Census

[The following from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33161]

Literacy rate in the country is collected only through the decennial census operations.  As per the last Census conducted in 2001, the literacy rate of the country was 64.84 per cent and female literacy was 53.67 per cent in respect of the population aged 7 years and above.  The literacy rate of Andhra Pradesh was 60.47 per cent and the female literacy rate was 50.43 per cent.  A statement showing the State-wise literacy rates of all persons, males and females as 2001 Census is enclosed.

The approach Paper to the XI Plan of the Planning commission has set a target of achieving 8.5 per cent  literacy rate by the end of the Plan period. 

This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shri M.A.A. Fatmai in a written reply to a question by Shri Ravula Chandra Sekar Reddy  in  Rajya Sabha today.

                                                                        …..

HB/SB/literacyrate26.11

STATEMENT REGARDING LITERACY RATE IN THE COUNTRY

S.No.           State/UT                                    Literacy Rate

                                                     Male        Female                   Person

1 comment November 26th, 2007

PIB: State-wise ranking on a composite index for primary and upper primary level of education

[The following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33162]

To assess progress of States and Union Territories towards the goal of Universalisation of Elementary Education, an Educational Development Index (EDI), has been developed by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA).  The EDI has been developed on four broad parameters of access, infrastructure, teacher related indicators and elementary education outcomes.  State-wise ranking on a composite index for primary and upper primary level of education based on 2005-06 data, is given at Annexure.

Educationally Backward States receive priority in allocation of funds under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.  In addition, capacity building of these States through trainings and workshops has been undertaken, especially in components in which these States are not performing well.  

This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shri M.A.A. Fatmi in a written reply to a question by Dr. Gyan Prakash Pilania in  Rajya Sabha today.

                                                                        …..

HB/SB/SB/nuepa26.11

ANNNEXURE

Composite (Primary & Upper Primary Level)Index

November 26th, 2007

State level talent serach in dance, music and painting: ad in Samaja

November 24th, 2007

More colleges to be given block grants by the state : Samaja

November 16th, 2007

150 more Bal Bhavans next year. Will some of them be outside Delhi?

Following is an excerpt from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=32645.

There will be 150 more Bal Bhavans next year, said Shri Arjun Singh here today. Inaugurating the International Children’s Assembly and Integration Camp on the occasion of Children’s Day, Human Resource Development Minister Shri Arjun Singh said “there are only 74 Bal Bhavans within the country that do not suffice the need of children. Therefore, our aim should be to bring up 150 more Bal Bhavans next year and one Bal Bhavan in each village in the future”.

 As per http://www.nationalbalbhavan.nic.in/about_us.htm there are currently 52 Bal Bhavan Kendras in Delhi, 73 affiliated state Bal Bhavans and 11 state Bal Bhavan Kendras. Following is an excerpt from the Bal Bhavan pages describing what they are.

With the objective of reaching out to maximum number of children who cannot avail the facilities provided by the National Bal Bhavan Head Quarters, Bal Bhawan Kendras were opened in different localities of Delhi. At present there are 52 Bal Bhawan Kendras which are mostly located in Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s schools or Govt. Schools. These Kendras cater to the under privileged children living in slum areas, rural areas and re-settlement colonies. Part-time Instructors man these Kendras. The activities provided in these Kendras are usually Art & Craft, Dance, Vocal Music, Painting, Batik etc. These Kendras are attended to by school going, non-school going and drop-out children. 92% of the children enrolled with these Kendras belong to the lower income group categories.

Lets hope some of the new Bal Bhavans, which are funded by MHRD, are opened in others states, including in Orissa.

1 comment November 15th, 2007

Right to School Choice – New Indian Express reports progress in Orissa

Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.

Amid mixed reactions, the ambitious "school choice Campaign" kicked-off in the State recently, involving both the gram panchayats as well as civil bodies in the districts.

The campaign advocates school vouchers to empower the poor to choose and demand better quality education for their wards.

The voucher of specific amount would be issued directly by the Government to parents’ instead of schools to fund child education at a school chosen by them. If a parent is dissatisfied, he can enroll his ward in another school.

The aim is to ensure greater accountability on the part of teachers’ and increase efficiency of the school. The Centre for Civil Society, which has launched this mission here along with 15 other states in the country, claimed to have achieved good progress after it was first floated here on June 19.

"Our intervention in the last four months has shown remarkable changes in people’s awareness level about the concept as the disillusionment with Government schools is widespread," maintained state coordinator of the campaign G B Dalai.

While sensitising the Government holds the key to its success, he said, Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority has evinced keen interest in the model and is willing to fund parents in some pockets on a limited scale under a pilot scheme.

The Orissa campaign plans to reach out to more than 2.5 million parents across Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Kendrapada, Khurda, Gajapati, Sundargarh, Koraput and Balangir. Across the nation, the organisation claimed, it has gained grounds in Delhi, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra among other states.

… District coordinator Trilochan Moharana said, more than 30,000 signatures have been collected and 13 citizen groups formed to spread the campaign message.

October 31st, 2007

1047 middle schools and 114 Kasturaba Gandhi girls schools to have eighth grade: Sambada

October 29th, 2007