Leveraging information systems to improve secondary education in India 1 Introduction

1.1 Indian School Education System and Centrally Sponsored Schemes

The Indian school education system, with 1.5 million1 schools spread over 36 states and Union Territories (UTs), is one of the largest in the world and serves a very diverse population in terms of language, region, religion, socio-economic status and expectations from the education system. The schooling system has also evolved over many years with different categories of schools, different education cycles, different managements - government, aided, private unaided, affiliated to different boards, multiple mediums of instruction, different types - boys only, girls only, co-ed and different administrative structures all of which vary hugely across the states.

Till 1976, education was in the ‘State List’2 as per the Constitution of India, with responsibility of delivery of school education lying on the state governments solely. The central government had made investments primarily in the higher and technical institutions such as the Central Universities, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Medical Colleges and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). There were huge variations in the school education systems across states and the educational indicators such as overall literacy and participation levels remained at alarmingly low levels. The centre responded by bringing education in the ‘Concurrent List’3 in 1976, thereby becoming, a permanent partner of the state governments in provision of quality education to all. The increased focus of centre was further articulated in the second National Policy of Education (NPE) formulated in 1986 which called for a “national integration in terms of education”, "child-centred approach" in primary education, and launched ‘Operation Blackboard’ to improve primary schools nationwide. Further it laid "special emphasis on the removal of disparities and to equalise educational opportunity," especially for women, Scheduled Tribes (ST) and the Scheduled Caste (SC) communities and “improvement in the quality of publicly funded schools”.

Central interventions in the education sector have been in the form of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs) such as the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development through 13.3 lakh4 Anganwadis5, which address early childhood nutrition and ‘nonformal pre-school education’; and the District Primary Education Program (DPEP) (1994-2000), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan6 (SSA) (2001 to date), and the Midday Meal programme (MDM), which have focussed on expanding and improving elementary education.

These schemes were financed mainly by central government (by planned budget allocation), state governments (through state share) and supported by bilateral development partners and multi-lateral agencies. Though the sharing pattern varied, the centre was expected to fund the major portion (75% in the first national plan period (5 years), subsequently reduced to 50% for the next 5 year plan period). However, the primary responsibility of the schools and delivery of education was and is with the states who undertake a bulk of non-plan expenditure such as salaries. This is demonstrated from the fact that the states spend around 75% of total education expenditure at elementary and 90% at secondary level7

1 U-DISE, 2013-14

2 Constitution of India, Seventh Schedule

3 Constitution of India, Seventh Schedule

4 Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. One lakh is one hundred thousand.

5 Community-run early childhood care centres

6 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is India’s flagship programme for the universalisation of elementary education.

7 The figures in Figure 1 are Indian Rupees, expressed in crores. One crore is ten million.