New Delhi: The Union Human Resource Development Minister Mr Prakash Javadekar launched a dedicated web portal ‘ShaGun’ for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) at New Delhi today (18 January 2017). ShaGun will capture and showcase innovations and progress in Elementary Education sector of India by continuous monitoring of the flagship scheme – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
The key features of the web platform are as followed: tracking the positive developments in elementary education and a monitoring mechanism to measure the state level performance in the education sector. The Union HRD Minister also unveiled the ‘Toolkit for Master Trainers in Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs’, which has been prepared jointly by World Bank and Ministry of HRD.
Highlighting the government’s efforts on improving the quality of education, Ministry of HRD will be codifying the learning outcome to set assessment standards for abilities with regards to comprehension, mathematics, language, etc.. Hence, all children will acquire at least the minimum levels of learning from Class I to Class VIII under Right to Education Act, 2009.
Learning Outcomes are assessment standards, which will indicate the expected levels of learning that children should achieve for that class. These outcomes can be used as check points to assess learning at different points of time. Ministry of HRD has uploaded draft document on its website in this regard to invite comments and suggestions through email address given: ([email protected]) .
Mr Javadekar highlighted that the ShaGun platform will give due recognition to people, State governments, schools, teachers working towards improving Elementary Education across the country. The Union Minister further emphasized that ShaGun will help monitor progress of implementation of SSA by assessing performance of States and UTs on key parameters and thereby serve as a platform for the central government for effective planning and deliver on the promise of providing quality education to all.
ShaGun, which has been coined from the words ‘Shala’ meaning Schools and ‘Gunvatta’ meaning Quality, has been developed with a twin track approach.
First, is the Repository with an engaging interface that focuses on positive stories and developments in the field of School Education. In this repository, best practices will be documented in the form of videos, testimonials, case studies, and images, which will display state-level innovations and success stories that are driving improvements in performance under SSA. This repository has a decentralized management structure that enables State governments to choose, upload and manage their own content.
Secondly, it has an online monitoring module to measure state-level performance and progress against key educational indicators. It has been developed to collect and report data which will enable the government and administrators to track the efficiency with which SSA funds are being utilized and the results that this is delivering. SSA is a centrally sponsored scheme providing universal access to education to children in the age group of six to fourteen years of age.
Also, ‘Toolkit for Master Trainers in Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs’ is the series of five training modules will provide the teachers with practical information on effective inclusion of CWSN and build those pedagogical practices that would address the needs of all children with special needs.
Mr Upendra Kushwaha, MoS, School Education and Literacy, MHRD, also addressed the gathering and lauded ‘ShaGun’ as right step forward to understand the program implementation and evaluate the gap between policy and action, which will supplement the government decision making.
The event also saw live interaction with Mr Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank India through a video conference. He expressed his appreciation towards Ministry of Human Resource Development for introducing this platform that will allow for global learning from SSA lessons being shared.
Mr Anil Swarup, Secretary, School Education and Literacy, GoI; Mrs Rina Ray, Additional Secretary, School Education, GoI; Mrs Shabnam Sinha, Lead Education Specialist, World Bank; senior policy makers and representatives of Autonomous Bodies such as NCTE, NCERT, CBSE and NUEPA, also attended the programme. The SSA ShaGun web portal can be accessed at http://ssashagun.nic.in.
