Elementary Education Project

 

India: Elementary Education Project                                             updated August 2005

Approval Date:              20 April 2004
Closing Date:                31 Dec 2007

Commitment Amount:    US$ 500 million
Percentage Disbursed:   27.8% - as of 30 June 2005

Background

Despite an overall increase in school enrollment in India, as many as 13.5 million children between the ages of 6 and 14 remain out-of-school. Child labor engages about 12 million children. Moreover, one out of every five children who enter grade 1 do not complete grade 5. Less than half  enroll for secondary education and less than one tenth register for post secondary/ tertiary education. Almost half the women in India cannot read or write.

In 2002, the Government of India legislated to universalize elementary education. As a result, every Indian child between the ages of 6 and 14 has been given the fundamental right to receive a minimum of eight years of elementary education. A national program known as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) or Education for All supports this legislation. The program aims to bring all children into elementary school, close gender and social gaps, and improve the quality of education by 2010. Its goals are more ambitious than the Millennium Development Goal of having all children, boys and girls alike, complete primary schooling by 2015.

Objective

To assist the government of India in its efforts to:

Reduce the number of out-of-school children by at least 9 million 

Increase enrollment

Bring more girls, disabled children, and those from disadvantaged communities to school

Improve transition rates from the primary (grades 1 to 5) to upper primary levels (grades 6 to 8), and increase learning levels.

Components

The World Bank is supporting this program through a Sector Wide approach along with its development partners - the Department for International Development, and the European Commission.

The project supports, among others, the construction and extension of primary schools; the training of teachers; the provision of salaries for additional teachers hired under the program; the supply of free school textbooks to girls and students from disadvantaged backgrounds; the provision of grants to disabled children; efforts to enroll out-of-school children; and increase school improvement grants.

Impact

A Joint Review Mission conducted in July 2005 indicates impressive progress on some objectives:

Overall, more children in schools: The number of out-of-school children in India has fallen from 25 million to 13.5 million, exceeding the end-project target of 9 million.

More girls, children from disadvantaged communities, and disabled children in schools:
Share of girls in total enrolment rose from 44 percent in 2002 to 47 percent in 2005
Share of children from disadvantaged communities increased from 18.9 to 21.3 percent
Share of disabled children in primary schools rose from 0.6 to 1.37 percent, exceeding project targets in the first year itself.

More children moving to upper primary grades and secondary schools: Transition rates from primary to upper primary levels rose from 75 percent in 2002 to 87 percent in 2005.

The project is now focusing on improving the quality of education and putting systems in place for monitoring learning levels.

Project Documents