India 2018

162 India 2018
been made mandatory for the schools to constitute School Management
Committees (SMC) wherein the parents/guardians of students studying in the
respective school are the members.
Monitoring Institutes
Institutions, including university departments of education, social science and
institutes of national stature have been assigned the work of periodic monitoring
of SSA implementation in states and UTs. In large states more than one institute
has been assigned the task of monitoring. These Monitoring Institutes (MIs) are
required to make field visits and report on progress of SSA at the ground level
every six months. This cycle is repeated every two years. SSA programme
modifies the terms of reference of the Monitoring Institutes as and when required.
Admissions under Section 12(1) (c) of the RTE Act
Section 12(1) (c) mandates all private unaided schools and special category
schools to reserve a minimum of 25 per cent of seats for economically weaker
sections. Under the SSA, the Government of India will reimburse the state
expenditure towards 25 per cent admissions to private unaided schools, based
on per child cost norms notified by the state government, subject to a maximum
ceiling of 20 per cent of the size of the SSA annual work plan and budget.
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA was launched in 2009 with the
objective to enhance access to secondary education and improve its quality. The
schemes envisages to enhance the enrolment at secondary stage by providing a
secondary school with a reasonable distance of habitation, with an aim to ensure
GER of 100 per cent and universal retention by 2020. The other objectives include
improving quality of education imparted at secondary level through making
all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms, removing gender, socioeconomic
and disability barriers, etc.
Some of the significant initiatives, under RMSA for improving quality of
education are as:-
(i) Shaala Siddhi: School Standards and Evaluation Framework and its web portal
was launched in 2015. It is a comprehensive instrument for school evaluation
leading to school improvement. Developed by the National University of
Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), it aims to enable schools
to evaluate their performance in a more focused and strategic manner and
facilitate them to make professional judgments for improvement. The
programme's objective is to establish an agreed set of standards and benchmarks
for each school, by focussing on key performance domains and their core
standards.
(ii) Shala Darpan: The "Shaala Darpan Project" to cover all the 1099 Kendriya
Vidyalayas was launched in June, 2015. The objective of this project is to provide
services based on school management systems to students, parents and
communities. Under school information services, the following list of services
will be enabled i.e., school profile management, student profile management,