There is now a sense of urgency in the efforts of the Government to provide education to all children. As many as five programmes have been launched or revised in the last six months. This resolve is also reflected in higher budget allocation for elementary education in the current year; from Rs. 2,852 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs. 3,608 crore in 2000-01. This rise in the allocation for elementary education was the highest i.e. 25 per cent in the social sector .

    True, these are impressive achievements. But the flip side to this is that out of 200 million children in the age group of 6-14 years, 59 million children are not attending school. Of this, 35 million are girls and 24 million boys. There are at least one lakh habitations in the country without schooling facility within one Kilometer. There are problems relating to drop-out rate, low levels of learning achievement and low participation of girls, tribals and other disadvantaged groups. Coupled with it are various systemic issues like inadequate school infrastructure, poorly functioning schools, high teacher absenteeism, large number of teacher vacancies, poor quality of education and inadequate funds.

    In short the country is yet to achieve the elusive goal of Universal Elementary Education (UEE), which means 100 per cent enrolment and retention of children with schooling facilities in all habitations.

    The most important initiative of the Government is the new scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which aims to provide eight years of elementary schooling to all children in mission mode with community participation. The programme aims to bring all children to school or alternative school by 2003, provide five years of primary education to all children by 2007 and eight years of elementary education by 2010. SSA will cover all districts in the country by March 2002. Preparatory activities of the programme have already begun.

    District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was extended to 43 more districts in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal recently. DPEP adopts a holistic approach to universalise access, improve retention and learning achievement and to reduce disparities among disadvantaged groups.

    The programme now covers over 40 percent of the children in primary stage in the country spread over 219 districts in 15 States. It will be expanded to 23 more districts in Gujarat, Orissa and Rajasthan soon.

    The scheme of Non-Formal Education introduced in 1979-80, targets out-of-school children in the age group of 6-14 years. The prime focus of this programme is ten educationally backward States but it also covers urban slums, hilly, tribal and desert areas. There were 7.3 million learners in 2,92,000 NFE centres during 1999-2000 and the Central Government incurred expenditure of Rs. 153.3 crore during the period. The programme has been now revised under the name "Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education " (EGS & AlE) to improve access in education, with flexibility to cater to diverse needs of out-of-school children. The new scheme provides for opening Education Guarantee Scheme schools in habitations where there are no schools within a radius of 1 Km.The investment cost per child per year has been increased from Rs. 375 to Rs. 845 at the primary level centre and from Rs. 580 to Rs. 1,200 at upper primary level.

    The Centrally sponsored scheme of restructuring and reorganisation of Teacher Education (TE) taken up in 1987 envisages setting up District Institution of Education and Training (DIETs) in each district to provide academic and resource support to elementary education teachers and non-formal and adult education instructors. Besides, it will also support establishment of Colleges of Teacher Education (CTE) and IASEs to organise pre-service and in-service training for secondary teachers; strengthening State Council of Educational Research & Training (SCERT) in States. Under this scheme 451 DIETs, 76 CTEs, 34 lASEs have been established so far.

    Lok Jumbish Project (LJP) is implemented in Rajasthan since June 1992 to achieve universalisation of elementary education. After successful completion of first and second phases, the third phase with outlay of Rs. 400 crore has now been launched. The project during 1998-99 covered 8,675 villages in 75 blocks. It set up 5,712 women groups, 5,010 Sahaj Shiksha Centres, 529 new schools and 549 Shiksha Karmi Schools.

    Shiksha Karmi Project (SKP) aims at qualitative improvement of primary education in remote and backward villages in Rajasthan with primary attention on girls.The Government has now launched the third phase with outlay of Rs. 240 crore.

    The scheme of Operation Blackboard (OB) aims to provide additional teacher in single teacher primary schools, at least two classrooms in all primary schools and teaching learning equipment in all schools. The scheme was extended in 1993-94 to provide third teacher and third room to primary schools wherever enrolment exceeds 100 and to cover upper primary schools through provision of additional teachers and teaching learning equipment. The Central Government has so far released Rs. 2,617.2 crore to States under the scheme.

    The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education commonly known as Mid Day Meals Scheme envisages serving cooked meals with calorie value equivalent to l00 gms of wheat or rice per student per school day. The Central Government spent Rs. 150 crore for implementation of the scheme during 1999-2000. The scheme is targeted to cover 10 crore children in 2000-01.

    The Joint GOI-Education Programme, better known as Janshala, is a collaborative effort of the Government of India and five UN agencies viz. UNICEF , UNDP, UNFPA, UNESCO and ILO for universalisation of primary education in selected blocks of non-DPEP districts in 8 States. UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA put together have committed US $ 20 million for this programme while UNESCO and ILO have committed to provide technical know-how.

    Mahila Samakhya (MS) was started in 1989 for the education and empowerment of women in rural areas, particularly women in socially and economically marginalised groups.

    The Government is presently formulating a scheme for "National Programme for Women’s Education" for providing free education for girls upto college level.

    The Supreme Court in Unnikrishnan Case ( 1993) had held that all citizens had a fundamental right to education flowing from Article 21. For reflecting the political resolve of the Government in this regard, it proposes to amend the Constitution to make elementary education a Fundamental Right.

    Consequent to these efforts, India has made enormous progress in terms of increase in institutions, teachers and students in elementary education. The number of schools in the country increased by four fold- from 2,31,000 in 1950-51 to 9,30,000 in 1998-99, while enrolment in the primary cycle during the same period jumped by about 6 times - from 1.9 crore to 11 crore. At the upper primary stage of education, the increase of enrolment during the period was 13 times, while enrolment of girls recorded a huge rise of 32 times. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at the primary stage in India has exceeded l00 per cent. Access to schools is no longer a major problem. At the primary stage, 94 per cent of the country’s rural population has schooling facilities within one kilometer and at the upper primary stage, it is 84 per cent.

    Besides these efforts of the Central Government, many States have made several State specific initiatives in recent years to provide education for all children. Together with the efforts of the Central and State governments, community and NGOs, the country would be able to achieve the goal of universal elementary education for a better future.