7.1.2 UEE: MLL, problems and national programmes

Explained

1. Problems of UEE (textbook list).

• What the 2022 paper asked, almost word for word from BRAOU Unit 12:
  • ignorance and illiteracy of parents is a problem of universal compulsory primary education;
  • problems of teachers and curriculum are the pressing problems for qualitative improvement (others: buildings, facilities, administration, finance);
  • improving learning needs, among other things, more teacher accountability;
  • unsuitable buildings and a crowded, noisy atmosphere have impeded primary education;
  • universal retention is a core problem of universalisation.
• Constraints (BRAOU Unit 11): inadequate finance, poverty and indifference of parents, schools alienated from the community, unsuitable curricula, ineffective teachers, lack of commitment in administration and supervision, a multitude of languages and dialects.
• Social evils that held back compulsory education: superstition, child marriage, untouchability, purdah, illiteracy.
• Barriers to access are physical, social, cultural and economic; BRAOU says many children are "pushed out" or "walk out" of school rather than simply "drop out".
• Wastage (leaving before completing the stage) and stagnation (repeating a class) were first studied for India by the Hartog Committee (1929); they are treated in a separate note.

2. Steps taken and suggestions (BRAOU).

• Steps taken: renewed political commitment and more funds, priority to educationally backward States, non-formal education for working children and drop-outs, compensatory pre-school education for children from deprived homes, mid-day meals with free clothing and stationery, better buildings, UNESCO and UNICEF projects, better teacher competence and supervision, parent education.
• Suggestions: mid-day meals, books and clothes for poor children; teachers free to adjust curriculum and calendar; a pre-school in every village or slum with 15 or more disadvantaged children; no frequent transfers of teachers; an in-service training centre in every district; a second (non-formal) teacher in single-teacher schools.
• Quality measures: grade primary schools on a five-point scale (A to E); village school committees look after buildings, playgrounds and ancillary services.
• Micro-planning (household-level planning) serves universal access, enrolment and retention; MLL serves universal attainment.

3. Measuring access and enrolment.

• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) = all pupils enrolled in a stage ÷ population of the official age group × 100. It can exceed 100% because under-age and over-age children are counted.
• Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) counts only children of the official age group; it cannot exceed 100%.
• Fifth All India Educational Survey (1986): 94.5% of the rural population had a primary school within 1 km and about 84% an upper primary school within 3 km.
• Primary schools grew from about 2.1 lakh (1950-51) to over 5.7 lakh (1992-93); primary enrolment from about 19 million to 114 million (1999-2000).

4. Minimum Levels of Learning (MLL) in detail.

• Why: enrolment rose but many children left primary school unable to read or count; there was no common standard of what a child should achieve.
• What: a list of competencies for each class and subject, stated in measurable terms, which all children (not only the average child) are expected to master; common to formal and non-formal programmes.
• Basis: mastery learning and competency-based teaching: teach, test each competency, give remedial teaching, re-test.
• Aims (BRAOU): improve the child's capacity to learn, improve the quality of teaching-learning, give direction to teaching, and make teachers accountable for learning.
• Learner evaluation under MLL: promotion at the basic stage goes with mastery learning; evaluation covers cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning; the system is accountable for actual achievement.
• Principles: equity (the same minimum in every school, rural or urban), quality, child-centred and activity-based teaching, continuous evaluation.
• Classes and subjects: Classes 1 to 5 in language, mathematics and environmental studies.
• UEE is reached only when every child has access to a school or learning centre, is enrolled (formal or non-formal), is retained, and attains the MLL.
• Later forms: the RTE rules were amended in 2017 to require class-wise learning outcomes, published by NCERT (2017); achievement is checked by the National Achievement Survey (NCERT; NAS 2017, 2021) and, since 2024, the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan.

5. National programmes, in order.

6. Operation Blackboard.

• Named after the blackboard, the most basic teaching aid; the aim was to bring every primary school up to a minimum standard. A centrally sponsored scheme.
• Three parts: at least two reasonably large all-weather rooms; at least two teachers, as far as possible one of them a woman; essential teaching-learning material (blackboards, maps, charts, toys, a small library, play equipment).
• The Centre paid the full salary of the second teacher in single-teacher schools.
• Extended in 1993-94 to a third teacher in primary schools with more than 100 children and to upper primary schools; later merged into SSA.

7. DPEP.

• Launched 1994, a centrally sponsored scheme run in mission mode through registered State societies; 85% Central share (mostly external aid from the World Bank, the European Community, the UK's DFID, the Netherlands and UNICEF) and 15% State share.
• Started in 42 districts of 7 States, chosen where female literacy was below the national average and where the Total Literacy Campaign had succeeded; later about 270 districts in 18 States.
• Goals: cut drop-out below 10%, raise learning achievement by 25% over the baseline, bring gender and social gaps below 5%, and give access to primary education to all.
• Emphases: attainment of MLL; renewed curriculum and textbooks; child-centred, activity-based teaching; a shift from teaching to learning; joyful learning; multi-grade teaching (one teacher teaching two or more classes together); community participation; girls, disabled children and first-generation learners; low-cost teaching aids; continuous and comprehensive evaluation.

8. Mid-Day Meal and PM POSHAN.

• Origins: Madras corporation scheme (1925) and Tamil Nadu's noon meal (K. Kamaraj, 1956; expanded in 1982).
• National scheme: 15 August 1995. The Supreme Court (PUCL v Union of India, order of 28 November 2001) made a cooked meal compulsory in government and aided primary schools; extended to upper primary in 2007-08 (educationally backward blocks) and to all upper primary schools in 2008-09.
• Norms: 450 kcal and 12 g protein (primary); 700 kcal and 20 g protein (upper primary).
• PM POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman), approved September 2021 for 2021-22 to 2025-26, also covers Balvatika (pre-primary) children in government schools.
• Besides nutrition, the meal raises enrolment, attendance and retention.

9. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

• National mission for UEE in partnership of the Centre, States and local governments, with community ownership of schools; the district remains the unit.
• Original targets (SSA framework): all children in school, EGS centre or "back-to-school" camp by 2003; five years of primary schooling by 2007; eight years of elementary schooling by 2010; bridge gender and social gaps; universal retention by 2010; focus on education for life of satisfactory quality.
• Components: new schools and classrooms, teachers, free textbooks, teacher training through BRCs and CRCs (block and cluster resource centres), EGS and alternative schools for small habitations, inclusive education for CWSN with a zero rejection policy (no child with special needs is turned away), girls' education (NPEGEL 2003, KGBV 2004), Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat (2014).
• Funding (Centre : State) moved from 85:15 (Ninth Plan) to 75:25 (Tenth Plan), a falling share in the Eleventh Plan, 65:35 from 2010-11 (with the RTE Act) and 60:40 from 2015-16; 90:10 for the North-East.
• After 2010 an Anil Bordia committee re-shaped SSA to fit the RTE Act (SSA Framework for Implementation, 2011); SSA then funded RTE duties such as in-service teacher training (a 2022 HWO question).

10. Samagra Shiksha, NIPUN Bharat and learning surveys.

• Samagra Shiksha (2018-19): "school as a continuum" from pre-school to Class 12; funding 60:40, 90:10 for the North-East and Himalayan States, 100% for Union Territories without a legislature; aligned with NEP 2020 from 2021-22. The mid-day meal is a separate scheme, not merged into it.
• NIPUN Bharat (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) runs under Samagra Shiksha; with it came Vidya Pravesh (2021), a three-month play-based school-preparation module for Grade 1.
• NEP 2020 calls FLN the highest priority, restructures school education as 5+3+3+4 (foundational, preparatory, middle, secondary), aims at 100% GER from pre-school to secondary by 2030 and at bringing about 2 crore out-of-school children back.
• Who measures what: ASER (Annual Status of Education Report, by the NGO Pratham, since 2005: rural children's learning); NAS (NCERT: learning in government and aided schools); UDISE+ (the national school data system: schools, enrolment, teachers).