The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found that the implementation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in Delhi is slow and there is poor utilisation of the funds. It has also found that there is lack of seriousness in the composition of the structures set up to implement the scheme.
The CAG report was tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Wednesday. It, however, did not come up for discussion. The Minister concerned too refused to reply to the report.
The SSA was launched in 2001-02 as a flagship programme of the Union HRD ministry aimed at providing elementary education to all children in the 6-14 age groups in the country by 2010. The CAG conducted a performance audit during the period from 2002-03 to 2004-05.
The SSA envisages close involvement and participation of the local community and stakeholders in both the planning process and in determining areas of spending. The CAG, however, found it its audit that there was no such participation in the formulation of the annual plans which was largely formulated at the headquarters. "There was a decreasing trend of enrollment of male students in all districts, except North West district which was indicative of either an alarming number of children not joining schools or lack of authenticity of data," the CAG said.
The CAG also pointed to the lack of intervention for the education of SC/ST children in Delhi. "The ratio of out of school children per thousand children in the age group of 6-14 years was 90 in respect of SC children in Delhi as compared to 19 in Chandigarh, 2 in Pondicherry, 69 in Haryana, 43 in Punjab and 89 in Rajasthan," the report said.
The performance audit also found that there was no uniformity in posting of teachers leading to a skewed distribution of teachers which was bound to affect the quality of education. It said adequate attention has not been paid to provision of infrastructure in terms of school buildings and essential facilities within the school. The CAG also found that no strategies were devised to impart education to children with special needs and urban deprived children. There are 30,186 children with special needs and 5,400 urban children in Delhi.
Email ashukla@hindustantimes.com
The performance audit also found that there was no uniformity in posting of teachers leading to a skewed distribution of teachers which was bound to affect the quality of education. It said adequate attention has not been paid to provision of infrastructure in terms of school buildings and essential facilities within the school. The CAG also found that no strategies were devised to impart education to children with special needs and urban deprived children. There are 30,186 children with special needs and 5,400 urban children in Delhi.
Email ashukla@hindustantimes.com