Participation in education at all levels has expanded greatly in India in the last two decades and investment at the secondary level has been prioritized to meet increasing demand arising from the success of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan SSA – a programme for universalizing elementary education and increased capacity of the secondary education system. The goal of Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) is universal access to secondary education.

The agenda to expand access is very challenging. It is not simply the volume of demand, but the fact that new secondary entrants will increasingly come from disadvantaged background. This will place greater challenges on the education system. These children will require more support and better-quality teaching and will lack academic assistance from within their households.

Enrolment Parameters:

• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has had considerable impact on participation.
• Overall number of children attending schools for all age group has registered an increase.
• The gap in enrolments between girls and boys still remains but has diminished considerably.
• The research shows that the most important determinant of exclusion from secondary school is household poverty.
• There is some evidence that expanded participation at the secondary level has benefitted those at the top and in the middle of the income distribution more than the poorest.

Policy Efforts:

• Significant strides have been made towards improving education in the tribal areas and strengthening the education sector in large parts of the country including North-Eastern States. This will give boost to on-going efforts to address the issues of dropout amongst the tribal students.
• The focus has been to enhance the financial support to education to impact positively on the universalization of elementary education in a time bound manner and ensuring universal access to secondary education.
• Teacher training program, through Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and teaching focuses on enhancing quality of education by providing better tools for teacher training.
• Higher education has been the policy priority with increased allocation.
• Institutions of excellence have been proposed to be set up, existing institutes to be upgraded and strengthened.
• The merger of SSA and RMSA is expected to

(i) Optimize the use of funds available for the sector

(ii) Cater to the diverse needs of States / UTs through a cafeteria approach

(iii) Lead to streamlined and efficient management, monitoring and supervision

(iv) Reduce administrative efforts and costs

(v) Bring fluidity in inter-component fund flows and

(vi) Institutionalize systems of financial control and discipline

• Innovation fund is one step in the direction to integrate technology and leverage its potential for brining secondary education to the disadvantaged areas.

Way forward:

• Inclusive, development in education cannot be viewed and planned for on its own. A successful school system with full participation is dependent on policy level efforts.
• Achievement of goals of inclusive development would require strong emphases on preparing school going children with catalytic skill and competencies.
• Without explicit provisions for curricular reforms, capacity building of key stakeholders such SCERT/DERT and creating a pool of teacher education, we will miss generation of learners that will support achievement of SDGS targets.
• Mechanisms to promote collaboration between schools, institutions of higher education and schools and between institutes of vocational education with schools will be crucial to support realization of sustained inclusive development in education.