Delivering Universal Primary Education in India

In a nation as sprawling and diverse as India, offering even a few years of education to all boys and girls is a daunting prospect, but one that the government is confronting with the aid of the international community.

Initiated in the early 1990s, the District Primary Education Program (DPEP) was designed to facilitate India’s efforts to achieve universal primary education and it has since become the world’s largest education program, reaching 60 million children.

While the World Bank is the single largest contributor to this initiative, having provided $1.2 billion, the program is also supported by many other donors, including the European Commission, UNICEF and
the governments of the Netherlands and Sweden.  Spread over 271 districts in 18 states in India, the program operates where female literacy levels are below the national average. 

The focus of DPEP is children between the ages of six and 14, and its target is to provide at least four or five years of quality primary education.  The project also aims to reduce the number of school dropouts and improve the overall quality of primary education.  In addition to girls who were formerly prevented from attending school, the beneficiaries include children with mild to moderate disabilities, and working children. 

Enrollment in general has increased, and in a three-year period enrollment of girls increased to 43 percent from 38 percent.  The recently instituted national education program is using DPEP as a blueprint for its overarching aim of delivering universal primary education across India.

Updated: September 2002