The Union Cabinet, on Wednesday, August 4, has approved the continuation of the Samagra Shiksha Scheme for school education till March 31, 2026. A financial outlay of Rs 2,94,283.04 crore, which includes a central share of Rs 1,85,398.32 crore has been made to implement the scheme between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2026. Samagra Shiksha scheme 2.0 seeks to cover 1.16 million schools, over 156 million students and 5.7 million teachers of government and aided schools from pre-primary to senior secondary level.
The Samagra Shiksha scheme is an integrated scheme for school education. The scheme treats school education as a continuum and is in line with Sustainable Development Goal for Education (SDG-4).
Along with providing support in the implementation of the RTE Act, the Samagra Shiksha Scheme has also been aligned with the recommendations of NEP 2020 to ensure that all children have access to quality education with an equitable and inclusive classroom environment which should take care of their diverse background, multilingual needs, different academic abilities and make them active participants in the learning process.
The scheme, in the second edition, will have an effective convergence architecture with various Ministries and developmental agencies of the Centre and State Governments, a Government statement said.
The expansion of vocational education will be done in convergence with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and other Ministries providing funding for Skills. The existing infrastructure of schools and ITIs and Polytechnics will be used to ensure optimum utilization of the facilities, not only for school going children but also for out of school children.
The Samagra Shiksha Scheme 2.0 aims to universalize access to school education; to promote equity through the inclusion of disadvantaged groups and weaker sections, and to improve the quality of education across all levels of school education.
