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Economic
Development Policy |
| EDUCATION
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INTRODUCTION
Education
is the key to development and poverty alleviation. It plays a
major role in improving the living standard of people and
enhancing their quality of life through building capabilities,
enhancing the skill levels of people and providing better
employment opportunities. Increased literacy levels also lead to
higher productivity, improved health and social development and
promotes greater equity through opportunity creation. It
empowers people and frees them to think and learn for
themselves. Investment in education therefore far outstrips the
returns from investments made in physical capital.
Increase in literacy levels and development of a skilled
workforce will help Madhya Pradesh in increasing its per capita
income in the coming years. In today’s changing world there is
an increasing need for highly educated and skilled professionals
thus making it imperative to provide opportunities for higher
education. At the same time it is important to ensure that
everyone completes a basic education of adequate quality and has
opportunities for developing advanced skills.
Much
progress has been made in the field of education in Madhya
Pradesh. The literacy rate has increased from 44%
(All
data used in this report is for the undivided state of MP –
pre Chhattisgarh) in 1991 (All India – 56%) to 64% (All India – 66%) in 2001.
The enrolment rate in primary schools has increased to 104% in
1999. But serious challenges remain. There exist huge
inequalities among certain groups – especially females and
tribals, who have been dis-proportionately excluded. Drop out
rates are high with close to 31 % of those enrolled, dropping
out before completing fifth standard.
Madhya Pradesh aims to become a fully literate state by 2010.
The state will aim at becoming an educated state and not just a
literate state – developing a “learning society as opposed
to a schooling society”. The government of Madhya Pradesh
shall therefore aim at providing education opportunities for all
classes of society. It will also ensure the availability of
skill development and employment related courses for its
citizens.
The
Government of Madhya Pradesh has identified Education as a
priority sector and shall focus on providing “quality,
relevant education to all”.
ELEMENTARY
AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
According
to the Constitution of India, it is the responsibility of the
state government to provide universal elementary education. The
government of Madhya Pradesh has been proactive in the field of
School Education and has undertaken a large number of
initiatives.
POLICY
INITIATIVES
The
Government is committed to universalisation of primary education
in the state. The
focus shall be on providing better infrastructure, improving
quality of education, improving access for the disadvantaged
groups, and encouraging community participation and early
education initiatives.
Infrastructure
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The
state proposes to continue the EGS and achieve the target
of one school in each village by the end of the December
2001. Community
participation is already in vogue and will be encouraged
in future also.
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The
state government proposes to have a Middle School at 3 km
from every habitation. The process of establishing these
middle schools has been initiated and will be expanded to
cover the entire state.
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The
state proposes to provide a high school and higher
secondary education within a distance of 5 km in the
coming years. Budget provision will be made accordingly to
implement the decision.
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Efforts
are on to ensure the availability of amenities like
drinking water and toilets in all schools. Where these are
not available the state will endeavour to provide these
facilities through the departmental budget.
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Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan is being launched to Universalise
Elementary Education (UEE) and provide infrastructure
support. The state has already submitted SSA Plan to the
GOI.
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State
government has taken a decision to establish a digital
library in each district with the amount provided on the
recommendation of the eleventh finance commission.
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Quality
of Education:
To improve the quality of education imparted in the schools the
state shall:
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Continue
the program of providing training to about one-lakh
teachers every year.
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Regularly
review and update the course content and curriculum of
school education.
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Introduce
English language from class I.
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Establish
a school of excellence in each district during the year
2002 – 2003. These
schools will have classes 9 to 12 and instruction will be
provided both in English and Hindi. Best teachers will be
posted in such schools. The project is in the
implementation phase.
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Vocational
education is being provided in the state through 300
higher secondary schools. The government has decided to
revamp this programme and make it more effective.
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In
addition to the above Project Head Start will be expanded
to cover all Middle Schools to use IT as a teaching tool.
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Reducing
Drop out Rate:
To
solve the problem of high drop out rates the government proposes
the following:
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Involving
NGOs for spreading awareness about benefits of education.
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Involving
community participation in the management of schools. This
is currently being done through the village education
communities.
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Adjusting
school timings according to the agriculture calendar and
providing flexible timings to ensure attendance are also
under consideration.
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Improving
Access for Disadvantaged Groups
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Incentives
are being provided to girls and SC/ST students in the form
of scholarships, distribution of free books and uniforms
and mid-day-meals.
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Women’s
Polytechnics have been started for providing vocational
education for girls.
There is a reservation of 30% for girls in
co-education polytechnics also.
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The
state will endeavour to provide improved infrastructure
for girls in the schools.
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To
ensure better targeted scholarships, reviewing the
scholarship structure is under consideration.
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The
state government has carried out a large number of other
initiatives to improve the reach and the quality of education
being imparted.
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An
Integrated Learning Material (ILM) has been developed to
improve the quality of content and the process of delivery
of education in the primary classes. This pedagogy is
proposed to be scaled up to cover the Education Guarantee
Schools as well.
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In
order to get the first hand information from the villages
pertaining to the needs and aspirations of the people and
children towards elementary education a participatory
micro planning exercise called Lok Sampark Abhiyan has
been put into place in the State. The EGS has been a
result of this exercise.
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In
order to stimulate the creative energies of the students
the State has embarked upon a programme for creating
Activity Centres in order to fulfil the ecological,
cultural, recreational and physical requirements in a
school. 2,759 Activity Centers have been developed in the
DPEP districts.
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A
scheme of computer education has been introduced in some
high secondary schools of the state from this year and
there is a plan to cover all the high and higher secondary
school by the end year of the year 2003.
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In
order to make the govt. schools popular, English has been
introduced in class first in all the govt. schools.
This will continue further in the coming years.
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In
order to help students decide on the subjects at higher
secondary level, vocational guidance has been provided in
the schools of the state from this year.
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HIGHER
EDUCATION
Higher
Education has a major role to play in these changing times. As the
world progresses towards becoming a knowledge economy, skilled
people have become a nation’s biggest assets. Since Madhya
Pradesh aims to become a major player in the knowledge economy it
needs to develop a base of highly educated and technically skilled
people. This is a major pre-requisite for becoming a sought after
destination for the new economy industries.
POLICY
INITIATIVES
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The
Government will endeavour to give greater administrative
and financial autonomy to educational institutions. It
shall move away from centralised control of institutions.
The educational institutions will be encouraged to raise
resources by their own efforts.
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The
role of the Department of Higher Education has been
substantially streamlined. |
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Educational
Institutes have been given autonomy |
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Teachers
are being recruited by these institutes on a
contract basis.
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The
government of MP has taken a decision not to set up new
educational institutions in the public sector. It will
focus on consolidating existing educational institutes and
will encourage the setting up of institutes by the private
sector.
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The
state Government envisions the promotion of Madhya Pradesh
as “A National Centre for Learning” by developing Bhopal as a “Univercity”. |
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The
government has set up a task force to suggest the
modalities for setting up a Life
Sciences University.
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The
government will endeavour to establish Rajiv
Gandhi Technology University as an Institute of
Excellence in Information Technology.
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Efforts
will be made to establish Centres of Excellence in
various disciplines in the existing universities. |
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