District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), launched in India in 1994, is one of the largest education projects of its kind in the world. The Programme aims to achieve the long cherished goal of Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) in the country through district-specific planning with emphasis on decentralised management, participatory processes, empowerment and capacity building at all levels.

Background

Ever since Independence in 1947, India has strived to achieve the goal of UEE in accordance with the Constitutional commitment to provide education for all children of 6 to 14 years. Primary education has been one of the focus areas in successive five year plans. True, India has made enormous progress in terms of increase in the number of schools and enrolment at the primary stage since independence. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the primary stage in India has exceeded 100 per cent. Despite all these achievements, a large number of children were still out of school and the goal of UEE continued to be elusive.

The objectives of District Primary Education Programme are to:-

• Provide all children with access to primary education (class I to V)
• Reduce primary dropout rates for all students to less than 10 percent.
• Reduce differences in enrolment, dropout rates, and learning achievement among gender and social groups to less than 5
  percent.
• Raise the average achievement levels of students by at least 25 per cent in language and mathematics and at least 40 percent achievement levels in other subjects.

• DPEP also seeks to strengthen the capacity of national, state and district institutions and organisations for planning, management and evaluation of primary education.

The criteria for selection of districts under DPEP are:

• Educationally backward districts with female literacy below the national average (39.29 percent) and

• Districts where Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) have generated demand for elementary education. (Out of 536 districts in the Country TLC covers 450 districts as on March 31,1999).

Coverage

Majority of the DPEP districts - with high share of tribals and socially disadvantaged population - are among the most educationally backward districts in the country with low female literacy. States and districts covered under DPEP are:-

DPEP Phase-II sueccessfully completed in June 2003. In DPEP Phase-VI; more covered, viz. Surendranagar, Kuchchh and Sabarkantha (externally aid) and Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Junagadh (also Porbandar) funded by the State are covered.

DPEP is different from other schemes in several ways.

DPEP adopts holistic approach, from the schematic to the integrated, with emphasis on convergence of existing programmes and resources.

b. District Specific

It adopts area - specific approach with district as the unit of planning and implementation. The key strategies of this district-specific planing have been to retain the contextuality and sensitivity to local conditions. This means plans are tailored to the specific needs of the districts.

c. Decentralized Planning

Corollary to the area - specific approach is the local area planning or decentralized planning with disaggregated target setting.

Consistent with the philosophy of decentralisation, plans are prepared at districts through participatory process involving district and sub-district functionaries, teachers, parents and community members.

DPEP has a marked focus on sustainability, sustaining the benefits beyond the project period.

Equity is a major concern in DPEP. All plans strategies and intervention are tailored to address the specific needs of the disadvantaged groups such as Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), minorities, girls and the disabled.

The Programme stresses on community participation and community ownership.

DPEP, which has adopted innovative practices and approaches, is a home grown idea.

i. Additionality

DPEP is an additionality to the existing resources for education. A basic requirement of DPEP is that at least 1991-92 levels of expenditure on elementary education should be maintained in real term.

j. Convergence

The programme encourages convergence of services in education, health, NFE, ECCE etc. rather than replicating them.

The period of the project varies from 5 to 7 years.

Upto a maximum amount of Rs. 40 crore is provided for implementation of the Programme in each district.

Out of the total project cost, about 70% of funds is spent on improving quality of education. Expenditure on civil works is limited to 24% and management cost to 6%.

The project is a Centrally sponsored scheme with 85 per cent of the project cost shared by the Government of India and the remaining 15 per cent by the State Government concerned. Both the Central share and State share are passed on to the State Implementation Societies directly as grant.

DPEP has evolved a management structure from the Centre right upto the village level with substantial autonomy, high degree of flexibility, and above all, space to experiment with different methods and models. The Programme is working towards institutionalization of an appropriate management culture across the primary education system in the country. The management structure of the Programme has several levels-national, state, district, block, cluster and village. Details of these structures are given below.

National Level: The role of National Level Structure (NLS) of DPEP is in facilitation, capacity building, appraisal, co-ordination and overall direction of the programme. Till adequate capacity is built in states, it would also assist in planning and implementation.

State Level: At the state level, the Programme is implemented in a mission mode through a registered autonomous society, which has two organs.

General Council (GC) with Chief Minister as ex-officio president and

Executive Committee (EC) headed by the Chief Secretary/Education Secretary of the State.

District Level: District and sub-district level programme planning and management are carried out by the District Project Committee headed by the District Collector or the Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Parishad.

Sub-District Level Some of the Project districts also have Block Project Implementation Committees. Block Resource Centre lends academic support, so also Cluster Resource Centre at cluster level (group of villages).

Village Level At village level, there are Village Education Committee (VEC), Mother - Teacher Association (MTA) and Parent - Teacher Association (PTA) to oversee implementation of the Project.

Government Agencies Academic and Research Institutions

1. Integrated Child Development Services
2. NCERT, NIEPA, LBSNAA
3. Health
4. Universities
5. Tribal Development
6. Colleges
7. Welfare Development
8. Management Institutions
9. Rural Development etc.

INNOVATION

The flexibility and responsive approach has allowed room for trying out innovations in DPEP. Funds earmarked for such purposes have been made available at various levels under the DPEP guidelines. It has been characteristic of the districts to first try out an innovation and assess its worthiness before upscaling. Though innovations have sought to address some larger issues, such as girls' education they have usually been contextual as they seek to tackle specific situations in pockets. While some innovations are costed activities, some are policy related as in the case of opening admissions to schools throughout the year or introducing flexible school timings. One of the priorities for innovation has been to involve the community in finding solutions to many persistent problems such as the attendance issues, shortage of teachers, inability of certain categories of children to enrol in schools etc.

Innovation tried out include:-

• Flexible School timings.
• Appointment of para teachers
• Introducing double shifts in schools
• Rescheduling holidays as per local festivals
• Providing escorts to girls
• Ashram residential schools
• Innovative Alternative Schools
• New Pedagogically Sensitive School designs

Ms. Meena Bhatt,
State Project Director,
District Primary Education Programme (DPEP),
Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA)
Sector -17, Gandhinagar-382 017. GUJARAT
Ph.: 079-23243133, 23243133, 23234939, 23235069-63
Fax: 91-079-23232436