Eleventh Five Year Plan

Education 11• Setting up additional 500 KGBVs in blocks withhigher concentration of SC, ST, OBC, and minoritypopulation.• Special attention to districts with high SCs, STs, andminority population. Innovative funds for SFDs tobe doubled.• Focus on improving the learning levels of SC, ST,minority children through remedial coaching inschools and also in habitations through educatedyouth of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS),NSS, Self-help Groups (SHGs), and local nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs).• Special schools for slum children in 35 cities withmillion plus population.• Special intervention for migrating children, deprivedchildren in urban slum areas, single parent’schildren, physically challenged children, and workingchildren.• Creation of capacity within the school for dealingwith students lagging in studies.• Setting up 1000 hostels in EBBs with the residentPG teacher as the warden to provide supplementaryacademic support.• Sensitizing teachers for special care of weaker sectionsand CWSN.• Intensive social mobilization in SCs, STs, OBCs, andpredominantly tribal and minority habitationsthrough community support.• Housing for teachers in tribal and remote habitations.Pre-school Education (PSE)1.1.55 The PSE component of ICDS-Anganwadi isvery weak with repetition high and learning levels low.This in turn discourages many children from continuingtheir education. SSA will have a component of oneyearpre-primary, which can be universalized to cover2.4 crore children in a phased manner. 9 This is criticalfor school readiness/entry with increased basic vocabularyand conceptual abilities that help school retention.Besides, it will free the girl child of sibling care.The existing coverage of pre-primary classes in schoolsis over 11 million. A large number of primary schoolsin States like UP and Rajasthan already have ECCE.Primary schools within the habitations are ideal forsuch ECCE. In other habitations, ICDS-Anganwadiwill be supported.Madarsas/Maktabs1.1.56 In the Eleventh Plan additional madarsasmaktabs will be supported for modernization underAIE component and it should be possible to cover allthe 12000 odd Madarsas during the Plan period.1.1.57 Education in human moral values, civic duties,environmental protection, and physical educationwill be built into the system whereby every child isprepared to face the future with a healthy frame of mindand body and become a responsible citizen. Educationwill foster the spirit of liberty, freedom, patriotism,non-violence, tolerance, national unity and integration,cultural harmony, inquisitive reasoning, rationality,and scientific temper in young minds. Every school andEGS/AIE centre will receive a special grant to celebratenational festivals of Independence Day and RepublicDay. Hoisting of national flag on these days should bemade mandatory in all educational institutions includingprivate schools with discipline.KGBV and DPEP1.1.58 These schemes will be subsumed within SSA inthe Eleventh Plan. Expansion of 500 KGBVs in district/blocks with high concentration of SCs, STs, OBCs, andminorities will be taken up. Also, an in-depth evaluationof the functioning of the existing KGBVs will beundertaken. The programme of civil works underKGBV appears to be slow in many States. DPEP willend in November 2008 and will be subsumed underSSA as per the existing procedure. The external commitmentswill however be met.Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS)1.1.59 The scheme has been extended to UPS (government,local body, and government-aided schools, andEGS/AIE centres) in 3479 EBBs from 1 October 2007to cover 17 million additional children and will beextended to all UPS from April 2008 to cover 54million children. Thus, MDMS will cover about 18crore children by 2008–09. The nutritional value ofmeals for upper primary children will be fixed at9Mid-Term Appraisal of the Tenth Five Year Plan, 2005, Planning Commission, New Delhi.