Student Flow at Primary Level - DISE

ForewordAt the time of independence, education in India used to be the privilege ofa few. Since then, concerted efforts have resulted in manifold increase inschools, teachers and students thereby increasing the outreach of elementaryeducation in the country. In fact, the implementation of the externallyfunded primary education programmes in the early 1990s gave further fillipto efforts towards achieving the goal of universalisation of elementaryeducation. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) launched for the Universalisationof Elementary Education (UEE) has been fairly successful, among others, ininstitutionalizing decentralized planning and monitoring processes. Overthe years it has been recognized that even with phenomenal expansion ofelementary education, the efficiency of primary and upper primary schoolscontinues to be low across States and UTs, thereby coming in the way ofachieving the goal of UEE. Accordingly, the SSA has envisaged acomprehensive monitoring system for all the four components of UEE.Although several attempts have been made in the past to assess access,enrolment and learners’ achievement, little information is available on theinternal efficiency of primary and upper primary schools in the country.Very few studies have attempted to look into all the indicators of internalefficiency, and none of these studies has so far examined the internalefficiency of primary education from a comparative perspective coveringall States and UTs. This report on student flow at primary level based onDISE data for 2004-05 and 2005-06, for the first time, attempts to analyzethe indicators of internal efficiency covering the entire country. Not only isthe report unique in terms of its coverage of indicators but also in providinginsights into regional variations in the performance of primary schools.The report acquires further significance in providing baseline performanceindicators for the purpose of monitoring the third component of UEE i.euniversal retention. I am sure this publication would serve as an importantreference material for both research scholars and personnel engaged inplanning and management of elementary education in the country.I would like to appreciate the hard work put in by the DISE Project Teamof the National University led by Prof. Arun C. Mehta of the Departmentof Educational Management Information System in bringing out thispublicationApril, 2007New Delhi(Ved Prakash)Vice-ChancellorNational University of Educational Planning and Administration