Know your Ministry - No. 31 - Education Department Of School Education & Literacy

Education plays a significant and remedial role in balancing the socio-economic fabric of the Country. Since citizens of India are its most valuable resource, our billion-strong nation needs the nurture and care in the form of basic education to achieve a better quality of life. This warrants an all-round development of our citizens, which can be achieved by building strong foundations in education. The Department of School Education & Literacy is responsible for development of school education and literacy in the country and aims for “universalisation of education” in making better citizens out of our young brigade.

Objectives

The main objectives of the Ministry is oriented towards:

• Formulating the National Policy on Education and to ensure that it is implemented in letter and spirit
• Planned development, including expanding access and improving quality of the educational institutions throughout the country, including in the regions where people do not have easy access to education.
• Paying special attention to disadvantaged groups like the poor, females and the minorities
• Provide financial help in the form of scholarships, loan subsidy, etc to deserving students from deprived sections of the society.
• Encouraging international cooperation in the field of education, including working closely with the UNESCO and foreign governments as well as Universities, to enhance the educational opportunities in the country.

Allocation of Business Rules

• Elementary Education.
• Basic Education.
• Bal Bhavan, Children's Museum.
• Social Education and adult education.
• Audio Visual Education with reference to entries in this list.
• Books and Book Development with respect to the items in the list.
• Educational Research with respect to items in the list.
• Publications, information and statistics with reference to the items in the list.
• Teachers training with reference to the items in the list.
• National Council for Teacher Education.
• Charities and Charitable Institutions, Charities and Religious Endowments pertaining to subjects dealt within this Department.
• Secondary Education and Vocational Guidance.
• National Council for Educational Research and Training.

The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) is the highest advisory body to advise the Central and State Governments in the field of education. Recent years have seen certain important committees and commissions deliberate on education. Central Advisory Board of Education is the Advisory Body and Statistics related to School Education was last published during the year 2018.

The following Institutions are the part and parcel of school education system in the country: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Central Institute of Education Technology (CIET), Central Tibetan School Administration (CTSA),Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS),National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT),National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), National Bal Bhawan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE)

ISSUES AND CHALLEGENS BEFORE SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

• Poor Current Enrolment & Attendance Status at School level.
• School Drop outs - The goal of universalisation of elementary education has not yet been achieved. The problem of left-out and drop-out still remains to be solved.
• Lack of effective and scientific evaluation of performance parameters of teaching staff.
• Non Enrolment due to effect of Poverty and Backwardness in Infrastructure or basic amenities to livelihood.
• Physical attainments in terms of Access, equity and quality is yet to be addressed.
• Lack or paucity funds to manage Education infrastructure posing development problems.
• Equality in the overall quality and standards of education at par across the country
• Expensive cost of education, Neglect of Indian languages and problems of Brain drain
• Where children are exposed to poverty, violence, abuse, or exploitation, those rights demand our urgent protection.
• Education supports children at a critical time in their physical, emotional, social and intellectual growth. More broadly, education is a key tool for development, and an invaluable means of addressing structural inequality and disadvantage. 
• Inadequate support structure in terms of deployment of advanced technology in integrating the resources for education due to limitations in terms of availability of Electricity, water, tools and gadgets that are necessary for Education at school levels.

REMEDIES UPFRONT

• The non-formal education schemes with emphasis on Vocational Training with greater magnitude of incentives may be of some help in this direction engaging educated youths from rural and semi-urban centres.
• Local bodies and voluntary organizations should be motivated to spread the statutory concept of Right to Education or compulsory education through a new legislation already.
• Improve Teacher-Pupil Ratio giving employment and training avenues to unemployed educated youth could be facilitated by increasing the school infrastructure and network.
• Employing Lady Teachers exclusively for girl students would help and encourage parents to send their girl children to school may help in increasing literacy rate and achieving excellence in school education.
• Development for Special skills or vocational talents at school levels need to be formulated as a Program to ensure identification and mobilizing raw talents having Research and Analytical brains.