AN EVALUATION OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SSA)

Education is the most vital input for the growth and prosperity of a nation. It has the power to transform human being into human resources. Apart from school education, higher education is the main instrument for development and transformation.

Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to another. Education may also include informal transmission of knowledge from on human being to another through a set of instructions in the process of making them education about the society, surroundings, environment etc.

The meaning of education is never fixed; it changes because the aims of education vary from society to society, from one school of philosophical thought to another, from one period to another. Education is the modification of behaviour towards a goal through experience and training in a socially desirable direction and also education may be equaled with the acquisition of information, knowledge, attitude skills and values. Education inherits, enriches, preserves and transmits culture and values to the coming generation.

Education is considered to be the most effective instrument for equalizing opportunities and reducing disparities between human beings. In a democratic society like ours the trust is to equalize and enlarge the coverage and improve quality of education in educational institutions.

The Education for All Movement Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), is an Indian Government programme aimed at the universalisation of elementary education “ in a time bound manner”, as mandated by the 86th amendment to the constitution of India making free and compulsory education to children of ages 6-14 a fundamental right.

There have been various studies undertaken by research organizations as well as Sarva Shiksha abhiyan (SSA) on several aspects of SSA initiatives some of these focus on the qualitative aspects and some on the quantitative aspects. The aspects / indicators used for assessment in most of these studies are more objective like access to schools, numbers of teachers in schools, availability of classrooms, toilets, etc. But the tangible aspects which are more subjective in nature like usage of toilet, usage of classrooms for teaching, efficiency of teachers, usage of the teaching learning material etc are not dealt with in most of these studies. There is thus a need to undertake a comprehensive study which covers both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the initiatives to understand the success of the SSA Programme in a better way. Hence study is an attempt to address this gap. Therefore the present study has conducted by researcher on “An Evaluation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan as implemented in Warangal district of Telangana State – A study”. To achieve these objectives, the present study has undertaken into account quantitative and qualitative approaches have been followed.

Further the present research will help the Educationists, Policymakers and its stake holders to take appropriate decisions for the development our nation educationally and economically.