The Centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha of the Department of School Education and Literacy is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII. The scheme treats school education as a continuum and is in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG-4). The Samagra Shiksha Scheme has been aligned with the recommendations of the National Education Policy: 2020 (NEP: 2020) and extended from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved continuation of Samagra Shiksha Scheme for a period of five years i.e., from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with a total financial outlay of Rs 2,94,283.04 crores which includes Central share of Rs 1,85,398.32 crores, as per EFC recommendations and approval of revised programmatic and financial norms.

ICT and smart class approvals: Under the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) component of the Samagra Shiksha Scheme, there is a provision to impart computer literacy and computer-enabled learning to children, by developing and deploying curriculum-based interactive multimedia, digital books, virtual labs etc. across the country. It supports the establishment of smart classrooms, and ICT labs in schools, including support for hardware, educational software and e-content for teaching. It envisages covering all Government/Government-aided schools with classes VI to XII. Till November 2022 (since inception), ICT Labs have been approved in 1,20,614 schools and Smart classrooms in 82,120 schools across the country.

Brief of activities undertaken from 1st January, 2022 to 31st December, 2022 is as under:

1. Shiksha Shabdkosh – Department of School Education & Literacy has brought out Shiksha Shabdkosh, a document on glossary of various terminologies in School Education and a compilation of all the terms which have been used in the context of school education.
2. Samagra Shiksha Framework for Implementation – Department of School Education & Literacy has issued a Samagra Shiksha Framework, which gives the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for each component and physical and financial details of implementation of each component of Samagra Shiksha.
3. 444531 Schools have awarded Fit India Flag, and 43074 Schools have applied for 3 Stars Rating and 13008 Schools have applied for 5 Stars rating.
4. 4^th FIT India School Week is being celebrated from 15^th November 2022 till 15^th January 2023. Till 19^th December 2022, total 1,17,844 students participated in various activities.
5. FIT INDIA Quiz 2022 for schools has been launched by FIT India Team. In this 1,74,473 students registered from 42,490 schools across 36 States/UTs in 2022.
6. A Virtual event on Assistive Technology Innovations for Inclusive Education as a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM): As a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM), Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, in collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog organized a virtual event on Assistive Technology startups for Inclusive Education showcasing innovations and startup solutions on January 17, 2022. The virtual event on ‘Assistive Technology Innovations for Inclusive Education’ focused on start-ups and their innovations that enhance or aid the learning of children with special needs.
7. Fifth edition of Pariksha Pe Charcha, the unique interactive program of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi with students, teachers and parents was held successfully on 1st April 2022 at Talkatora Stadium. Selection for this program was carried out through a creative writing competition for the students of classes 9 to 12, teachers and parents on MyGov.in portal from 28th December, 2021 to 3rd February, 2022.

PRASHAST Mobile App – “Pre Assessment Holistic Screening Tool”:

Department of School Education & Literacy has launched a Disabilities Screening Checklist for Schools and an Android Mobile App titled as PRASHAST Mobile App – “Pre Assessment Holistic Screening Tool” for schools during Shikshak Parv, 2022. PRASHAST App will help in screening 21 disability conditions recognized in RPwD Act, 2016, at the school level and will generate the school-wise report, for further sharing with the authorities for initiating the certification process, as per guidelines of Samagra Shiksha. PRASHAST Mobile App has been developed by CIET, NCERT.

Amendment in RTE Act, 2009 w.r.t. pupil teacher ratio for special educators in general schools:

The schedule to RTE Act, 2009 has been amended regarding pupil teacher ratio for special educators in general schools i.e. one special education teacher for every ten pupils with disabilities enrolled at primary level and one special education teacher for every fifteen pupils with disabilities enrolled at upper primary level and a notification has been published in Gazette of India vide Notification No. S.O. 4586 (E) dated 21.09.2022 (published on 29.09.2022).

Exam Accommodations to CwSN in Board Exams:

Virtual Inclusive Education Meets were organized by DoSEL on 31.01.2022 and 09.06.2022 with the IE coordinators of all states and UTs to review the status of Board Accommodations offered to CwSN. As information received from States/UTs, 32 out of 36 States/UTs have notified the exam accommodations provided to CWSN to be availed in Board Exams, 20 out of 36 States/UTs prepared Audio/ Video films on Exam Accommodations provided to CWSN in Board Exams and 27 out of 36 States/UTs conducted webinars to sensitize teachers/ principals on Exam Accommodations.

Up-gradation of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidvalavas (KGBVs):

KGBVs are residential schools under Samagra Shiksha, for girls from class VI to XII belonging to disadvantaged groups such as SC, ST, OBC, Minority and Below Poverty Line (BPL). Under Samagra Shiksha, provision has been made to upgrade/converge the existing KGBVs at upper primary level and Girls’ Hostels at secondary/senior secondary level, as feasible, up to Senior Secondary Level. The task of up-gradation of the KGBVs was started in the year 2018-19 and till the year 2022-23,a total of 357 KGBVs have been approved for up-gradation to Type-II (class 6-10) and 2010 KGBVs have been approved for up-gradation to Type-III (class 6-12).

PARAKH

NEP 2020 envisages a shift from summative assessment to regular and formative assessment, which is more competency-based, promotes learning and development, and tests higher-order skills, such as analysis, critical thinking, and conceptual clarity. In view of implementation of NEP 2020, a new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) will be setup as a standard-setting body under Ministry of Education in NCERT. This centre will work for setting norms, standards, and guidelines for student assessment and evaluation for all recognized school boards of India, hand holding the States and undertaking the National Achievement Survey (NAS). This Centre will also advise school boards regarding new assessment patterns and latest researches, promoting collaborations between school boards. It will encourage and assist school boards to shift their assessment patterns towards meeting the skill requirements of the 21st century. PARAKH will be established as a technical organisation with knowledge of assessment standards and skills, as well as a robust understanding of policymaking and implementation.

National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021:

The Government of India has been implementing a programme of sample based National Achievement Survey (NAS) aimed at classes III, V, VIII and X with a cycle period of three years. The NAS 2021 was held on 12.11.2021 and has covered (a) Government Schools (Central Government and State Government); (b) Government Aided Schools; and (c) Private Unaided Schools. Subjects covered are Language, Mathematics & EVS for class 3 & 5; Language, Mathematics, Science & Social Science for class 8 and Language, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and English for class 10.

About 34,01,158 students of 1.18 lakh schools from both rural and urban areas, have appeared in NAS 2021 which was held on 12^th  November, 2021. National, State/UT and District Reports for NAS 2021 have been released on 25.5.2022 and are available at http://nas.gov.in. The learning gaps identified at the district level will be used to provide feedback to the districts.

Further, a national level workshop on Post-NAS 21 interventions was organised on 28/07/2022 by Ministry of Education with representatives of all States/UTs, SCERTs, DIETS and NCERT. The purpose is to support State/UT governments in developing long term, mid-term and short-term interventions to improve learning levels and orient on differential planning based on NAS 2021 data. In addition, NCERT has conducted Post-NAS 21 regional workshops at many locations across the country. The purpose is to disseminate the findings of reports and assist states/UTs in planning strategies to bridge identified learning gaps as per NAS 21 data.

Actions initiated by the Department for implementation of NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY (NEP):

• NEP Implementation Plan ‘SARTHAQ’ (Students’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement through Quality Education) has been released on 8^th April, 2021.
• A National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission named as ‘National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy – (NIPUN BHARAT) was launched on 5^th July 2021, for ensuring that every child in the country necessarily attains foundational literacy and numeracy in Grade 3 by 2026-27.
• NCERT has developed a 3 Months Play Based ‘School Preparation Module’ named ‘Vidya Pravesh’ which was launched on 29^thJuly 2021.
• Foundational Learning Study (FLS) to assess the learning level of Class 3 students in Foundational Literacy and Numeracy was administered by MoE and NCERT in collaboration with States/UTs from 23^rd to 26^th March and 4^th  to 6^th  April, 2022 across all Indian States and Union Territories under the NIPUN-BHARAT Mission. The results for FLS were published on 06th September 2022 in the form of national, state and district reports. The reports can be accessed at: https://dsel.education.gov.in/fls_2022 .
• To connect the Government and Government aided schools through a community/volunteer management program, the Department has revamped the Vidyanjali web portal. The newly introduced portal – Vidyanjali 2.0 aims to help the community/volunteers interact and connect directly with schools of their choice to share their knowledge and skills as well as contribute in the form of assets/material/equipment.
• The department has aligned our existing schemes i.e, Samagra Shiksha and Mid Day Meal with the recommendation of NEP 2020.
• NISHTHA 4.0 (ECCE) – Online: Teacher training programme for Early Childhood Care and Education has been launched on 06^th September, 2022 with 6 modules. Initiated in 36 States/UTs in 2 languages, and in 5 Autonomous Organisation under MoE, MOD &MOTA. It targets to train 25 Lakh teachers and school heads at pre-primary and primary level.

PM Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) :

The Cabinet has been approved a newly central sponsored scheme called PM SHRI on 7 September, 2022. These schools will showcase the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020 and emerge as exemplar schools over a period of time, and also offer leadership to other schools in the neighborhood. They will provide leadership in their respective regions in providing high-quality education in an equitable, inclusive and joyful school environment that takes care of the diverse background, multilingual needs, and different academic abilities of children and makes them active participants in their own learning process as per the vision of NEP 2020.

Under the scheme there is provision of setting up of More than 14500 PM SHRI Schools (PM ScHools for Rising India) by strengthening the existing schools from amongst schools managed by Central government/State/UT Government/local bodies.

The duration of scheme is proposed to be from 2022-23 to 2026-27; after which it shall be the responsibility of the States/UTs to continue to maintain the benchmarks achieved by these schools. More than 20 lakh students are expected to be direct beneficiaries of the scheme. The total cost of the project will be Rs.27360 crore spread over a period of 5 years which includes central share of Rs.18128 crore.

PM POSHAN Scheme

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the continuation of PM POSHAN Scheme in Schools for the five-year period 2021-22 to 2025-26 with the financial outlay of central share of Rs.54,061.73 crore for five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26. During 2022-23 the scheme covers more than 12 crore children studying in Bal Vatika and classes I-VIII in Govt. and Govt. Aided Schools.

During 2022-23 (upto December 2022), Rs 6758.84 crore had been released to States and UTs as central assistance and 29.68 lakh MT foodgrains had been allocated to them.

PM POSHAN Scheme Guidelines have been comprehensively revised and several focus areas such as Public Financial Management System, Quality and Safety Aspects, Social Audit, Joint Review Mission, School Nutrition Gardens, Cooking Competitions, TithiBhojan, Supplementary Nutrition in Aspirational districts and districts having high burden of malnutrition, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) etc.

Material cost (earlier known as cooking cost), which includes cost of procurement of pulses, vegetables, oil, condiments and fuel has been enhanced to Rs 5.45 per child per day in primary and Rs 8.17 per child per day in upper primary w.e.f. 1^st October, 2022.

DoSE&L has decided to set up School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens (SNGs) and planting in an immense way. School Nutrition (kitchen) Gardens (SNGs) utilizes the schoolyard to reconnect the students to a natural world and make them aware about the true source of their food and teach them valuable gardening, agriculture concepts and skills that integrate with several subjects such as math, science, art, health and physical education and social studies etc. The vegetables and fruits grown in these kitchen gardens are being used in the preparation of hot cooked meals. This offers an opportunity for students to eat freshly grown vegetables loaded with vitamins and minerals which are essential source of their physical and mental growth & development.

Adult Education

New India Literacy Programme (NILP): Keeping in view the recommendations of NEP, 2020 and UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.6, a centrally sponsored scheme“New India Literacy Programme”(NILP)has been approved by the Government of India in this year with financial outlay of Rs.1037.90 crore (central share: Rs.700.00crore and state share: Rs.337.90 crore) for the financial years 2022-23 to 2026-27. A D.O. letter dated 21.02.2022 from Secretary (SE&L) was issued to all Chief Secretaries of all States/UTs in respect of launching NILP. The scheme has five components: (i) Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, (ii) Critical Life Skills, (iii) Vocational Skills Development, (iv) Basic Education and (v) Continuing Education. The target for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for FYs 2022-27 is 5.00 crore learners @ 1.00 crore per year by using “Online Teaching, Learning and Assessment System (OTLAS)” in which a learner may register him/herself with essential information.

The NILP provides for (i) involvement of school students, pre-service students of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), school teachers, Aganwadi and ASHA workers, NYKS, NSS, NCC volunteers, (ii) school to be unit for implementation of the scheme (iii) The age cohorts of 15-35 will be saturated first, followed by ages 35 and above.priority will be given to girls and women, SC/ST/OBC/Minorities, Persons with Special Needs/Divyangjans (Disabled persons), marginalized/nomadics/construction workers/labourers, etc. (iv) use of ICT and online implementation of the scheme through ‘Online Teaching Learning and Assessment System’ (OTLAS) (v) material and resources through digital modes, viz, TV, radio, cell phone-based free/open-source Apps/portals, etc. (vi) Assessment tests to be conducted in schools; Assessment on demand through OTLAS and generation of e-certificates, (vii) Sample achievement survey: Sample achievement survey will be held every year for 500-1000 randomly selected learners from each State/UT.(viii) Online MIS: Online MIS will be in place to track the progress. Monitoring of progress shall be undertaken at national, state, district and school levels through online mode.

Other Initiatives

Vidyanjali:

Vidyanjali-the school volunteer initiative is an online portal that acts as a facilitator by connecting volunteers directly to the schools.  The effort is to bridge the knowledge / skill / human resource and infrastructure gap in the schools by tapping the potential available in the civil society. This is not to substitute the government responsibility, but to compliment, supplement and strengthen government efforts to reach the last mile in the best possible way. The government has been trying to mobilise the contribution of assets or services from all segments of the society comprising of alumni of educational institutions, serving and retired teachers, scientists, government/semi-government officials, retired armed forces personnel, self-employed and salaried professionals etc. During the year upto 22^nd December, 2022 3,92,488 schools have onboarded and 1,10,874 volunteers have registered on the Vidyanjali portal.  Volunteers have expressed their interest in several areas such as subject assistance, mentoring of gifted children, teaching vocational skills, sponsoring projector, ceiling fans, laptop and library for schools etc. With volunteers’ active participation, the program has successfully managed to impact 1085648 students across the country.

Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat Campaign (2021-22) :

• In celebration of Rashtriya Ekta Diwas or National Unity Day-2022 over 86 lakh students participated in several suggested activities by the Dept of School Education.
• Bhasha Sangam programme has been held on 1^st November, 2021, through launch of a mobile app and 22 booklets (QR coded with audio and Indian Sign Language) with the aim of learning of 100 sentences in the 22 scheduled Indian languages to facilitate listening, comprehension and practice speaking of these languages. Around 6 Lakh Students of KVS and JNV took Sankalp to learn 100 sentences in the 22 scheduled Indian languages
• The international mother tongue day-2022 was celebrated in all the schools virtually. Students from across the country participated in the celebration of MatribhashaDiwas.
• 3.8 Lakh EBSB Clubs formed in schools in J&K, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Gujarat, Telangana, KendriyaVidyalayas and CBSE etc.
• Altogether 2.5 Crore school students from across the country have participated in regular EBSB activities (suggested under guidelines) during the year 2022.
• Over 8 crore students in Kala Utsav Programme, Band Competition, National Integration Day, “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat Parv”, Mother Tongue Day, Bhasha Sangam etc.
• All States and Union Territories have been culturally mapped under EBSB.
• 240,73,728 students from class I to X participated in the Mandatory Art-Integrated Project”– CBSE program by submitting their reports.
• 431503 students from 1843 schools participated in Expression Series on Art and Culture-CBSE and 4315 entries have been received by the Board
• Student visits to the paired State/UT Programme under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav is going on across the country. Total 432 school students from different States/UTs have visited to their paired State/UT under the program.

Aspirational Districts:

The officials of the Ministry visited the only one aspirational district Mewat in Haryana, Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and Nabarangpur in Odisha during the year 2022. An interactive session was organized with the DEO, BRCs and CRCs implementing Aspirational District Program and on Vidyanjali the school volunteer initiative. The status of ADP implementation was also assessed through field visits to the Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary and Senior Secondary Government schools, Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and Netaji Subhas Chander Bose Residential hostels in the districts.

National Informatics Centre (NIC):

1. The achievements of NIC under UDISE+ :

• Emerged as the One-stop shop for general citizens of the country to acquire an overview of the school education system with contemporary and credible facts
• Drastically improving the quality and credibility of the data provided by the schools
• Accuracy and reliability of information has helped to draw more precise inferences.
• Enabled the States/UTs to undertake evidence-based planning and design appropriate interventions to improve the system.
• The following Awards won by NIC for UDISE

The achievements of NIC under NAS- 2021:

• NAS is envisaged for formulating policies, planning, and pedagogical interventions to improve student learning. It is not designed to assess the individual student performance.
• NIC has successfully designed an application platform pre-examination, core examination and developing various national, state and district level reports along with analytical dashboard.
• Coordination with various stakeholders Ministry of Education (MoE), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), NITI Aayog, UNICEF.
• Sampling to select school was developed based on the Circular Systematic Sampling algorithm along with American Institute of Research (AIR) along with all the stakeholders.

1. PM SHRI School: The Tech platform developed by NIC provides facility – PM SHRI School Selection at District/State and National Level, Monitoring & Assessment of the selected PM SHRI Schools.

Statistical Profile of School Education in India

1. UDISE PLUS

DoSE&L collects annual data on important parameters relating to school education from all recognized schools through Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) through online mode. UDISE+ has inbuilt validation checks and subsequent data verification at the Block, District and State level before being finalized at National level. Due to COVID-19 pandemic schools were closed during April 2020 to January 2022 in most of the States. Immediately after re-opening of schools, UDISE+ 2020-21data have been collected on a war footing and final report for 2020-21 was released on 26.4.2022. Subsequently, the data collection for UDISE+ 2021-22 was also completed in a record time and released 3.11.2022. The UDISE+ reports can be assessed online at https://dashboard.udiseplus.gov.in/#/home.   From 2022-23, UDISE+ system will capture Student wise data from all the recognised schools for which data compilation is presently underway at State/UT level.

2. Performance Grading Index (PGI)-State :  

The Performance Grading Index (PGI) developed by Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSE&L) aims to assess the relative performance of the all the States/UTs in a uniform scale to encourage States/UTs to perform better. The PGI-State has been conceptualized as a tool to catalyze transformational change in the field of school education and introduced from 2018-19.   The PGI – State motivate States and UTs to adopt best practices followed by the top performing State and it has five domains with seventy (70) indicators carrying a score of 1000.  The PGI-State report for the year 2020-21 was released on 3.11.2022. The PGI report from 2017-18 to 2020-21 can be accessed at https://pgi.udiseplus.gov.in/#/home  To align with National Education Policy 2020 initiatives and to replace existing indicators which have achieved optimal target, the PGI – State structure for 2021-22 has been revised and renamed as PGI 2.0. The new PGI structure covers 73 indicators, focused more towards qualitative assessment besides including digital initiatives and teacher education.    The PGI report for 2021-22 is presently under advanced stage of completion by States/ UTs and will be released soon.

3. Performance Grading Index District  (PGI-D) : 

Based on the success of State PGI and to provide district level measures for effective assessments of educational attainment, DoSE&L decided to extend PGI exercise to District level by creating a new Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) for the first time ever.  The PGI-D is crafted with more focused objective of assessing districts on a common parameter with attention now shifting towards outcome measurement of educational policies. The PGI-D structure comprises of total weight age of 600 points across 83 indicators, which are grouped under 6 categories viz., Outcomes, Effective Classroom Transaction, Infrastructure Facilities & Student’s Entitlements, School Safety & Child Protection, Digital Learning and Governance Process. PGI-D grades the districts into ten grades  viz.,  highest achievable Grade is  called Daksh, which is for Districts scoring more than 90% of the total points in that category or overall. The lowest   grade in PGI-D is called Akanshi-3 which is for scores upto10% of the total points. Ultimate objective of PGI-D is to help the Districts to priorities areas for intervention in school education and thus improve to reach the highest grade. PGI-D is the tool to get insight into intra State comparison of progress of School education.

PGI-D report for 2018-19 and 2019-20 has been released on 27.06.2022 and can be accessed at https://pgi.udiseplus.gov.in/#/home. PGI-D report for 2020-21 has been finalised and will be released soon.

4. Data Governance Quality Index (DGQI): The NITI Aayog has developed DGQI platform in 2020 for assessing the data preparedness of the Ministries/ Departments in respect of Central Sector/Centrally Sponsored Schemes. For this, 74 Ministries/ Departments for 630 plus Central Sector Schemes/ Centrally Sponsored Schemes/ Non-Schematic Interventions have been selected to assess the evidence based planning and use of technology by the Ministries. The DGQI assess the Ministries/ Departments of Government of India on a uniform scale of 0 to 5. The DoSE&L score in DGQI 1.0 (2020) was 2.95 out of 5 which was further improved in DGQI 2.0 (2021) to 4.28 and was remarkably improved to 4.62 making it fifth best performer among all Ministries/ Departments.
5. Timely submission of data for Global Indices– Being nodal department, DoSE&L has compiled upto date  enrolment data for 2021-22 from all the stakeholder viz., M/o Women & Child Development, M/o Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, D/o Higher Education and other enrolment data from UDISE+ ,  NIOS  and provided to UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) on 10th November, 2022 much before the cut of date of 31st March, 2023.The latest enrolment data is expected show improvement in Country’s performance in various Global Indices.