General education

School census is conducted to assess the situation now.

2. 2

3. 3

4. 4
Age structure of School going children

5. 5
Universalisation of elementary education poses a
formidable challenge to India:

The numbers of children dropping out, not attending
school regularly and never enrolled are immense.

Quality of education is poor in many schools.

Teachers are inadequate; not fully trained and have
lack of motivation. 
The priority concerns for the country remain
particularly with improving the quality of educatio n
and making education effective, enjoyable and
relevant to the children.

6. 6
A major concern:

To improve the skills and motivation of
teachers,

promoting the participation of communities in
the running of schools and

Enrolling / retaining girls / working children of
urban poor and

children with special needs in schools.

7. 7
To check drop-out rate 
Creating parental awareness

Community mobilization

Economic incentives

Minimum Levels of Learning (MLL)

District Primary Education Programme

(DPEP)

National Programme of Nutritional Support to

Primary Education (Mid-day Meals Scheme)

8. 8
Universal elementary education:

Elementary education covers the primary (6-11
years) and upper primary (11-14 years) age group. I n
most Indian states, this translates into the succes sful
completion of prescribed educational requirements
till Class VIII.

The essence of the goal is for every 14-year old to
have acquired foundation skills such as the ability
to read and write with fluency, numeracy,
comprehension, analysis, reasoning and social skill s
such as teamwork.

Equally, elementary education should instill in
children courage, confidence, curiosity,
independence, resourcefulness, resilience, patience
and understanding

9. Nationwide school census: 2019-20
Thousands of surveyors will soon fan out to various corners
of the country for a mammoth school census programme,
which will assess and grade nearly 12 lakh government
and government-aided schools on various key indicators,
including infrastructure. Being undertaken by the Centre ,
the first-of-its-kind exercise —is also intended to verify t he
authenticity of the data provided by the states to the
Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry.
9

10. Data Collection
The one-month long survey is likely to be conducted in
September and cover a total of 11,85,227 government and
government-aided schools in 36 States and Union
Territories (UTs). Of them, 10,74,911 schools are locate d
in rural areas. “Data on various school parameters are
collected through various means to assess their quality and
infrastructure. However, they are not corroborated throu gh
field visits. Therefore, a need was felt to take up the
exercise,” a HRD ministry official said.
10

11. 11

Over 73,000 surveyors will be engaged to conduct the
physical inspection of the schools and collect data. Every
State and the UT will appoint a nodal officer and
coordinators at the district level to oversee the conduct
of the mega exercise.

A monitoring cell will be set up, both at the central level
and the level of States, for monitoring the exercise. F or
the survey, the HRD ministry has already mapped the
available human resources in consultation with the
States and UTs.

12. 12
The surveyors will include trainees and faculty members
from the District Institutes of Educational Training (DI ET)
and faculty members from the State Councils for
Educational Research and Training (SCERTs).
Block and cluster level resource persons of the state
governments will also be engaged to conduct school to
school survey, but those from the DIET and the SCERT will
be given preference. “Teachers, principals, and other staf f
of the schools will not be involved in the survey”, the off icial
said.

13. 13
A mobile application is also in the works. Ahead of the
census, training programmes will be organised for
surveyors and other staff.
"The surveyors will be provided with one-month cost of
subscribing data package for unlimited internet at the
rate of Rs. 300 per surveyor as an incentive besides the
payment of honorarium and other expenses to them," the
official said.