M.P. State Open School Board Of Secondary Education Campus Focuses On ‘Education For All’
Education lays the foundation for overall development of an individual. M.P. State Open School Board of Secondary Education Campus provides a strong medium of learning process, providing opportunities for all round development of a person. Literacy rate in M.P. has seen a sharp increase of 10% in the past years. Education in Madhya Pradesh is well developed and divided into primary, secondary and higher education. Clearly defined educational policies have made way for the implementation of Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS), creation of new administrative units and Padhna Badhna Andolan for adult literacy.
Step by step efforts
- 1994 reforms addressed two main issues: inability on the part of schools to reach children and negligent behavior of the teachers. To overcome this problem, EGS was initiated and it guaranteed one primary school within one kilometer radius which has resulted in the creation of 28,000 schools with a maximum of two teachers. The scheme also demanded land to open new schools within 90 days.
- In 1999, Rajiv Gandhi Education Mission was set up, to complement State government’s efforts to make elementary education universally applicable to all in Madhya Pradesh. ‘Literacy to all’ and ‘Read and Grow’ were the basic objectives of the mission. By the end of the year 2000, ‘Basic Education for all’ was the prime motto of the State.
- Education for women was started in 2002 as ‘Literacy to All’ mission revealed that women are still lagging behind.
- Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was also started with an aim of providing adequate facilities for 8 years of elementary education. Objective of SSA was to bridge the gender gap that exists in enrolling and retention of students.
- In 2002, a new reform namely ‘Madhya Pradesh Jan Shiksha Adhiniyam’ was enacted to provide free and compulsory basic education for children up to the age of 14.
- The Right of Children to free and compulsory education Act (RTE) was passed in 2009 to provide free and compulsory education to children.
Primary Education
Under the SSA, children falling under the age group of 6-14 years are provided free and compulsory education. It was found during the RTE Act that primary schools have the availability of black board, chalk and dusters, teaching learning materials, chairs and tables to sit and facility of safe drinking water within the campus. Since there have been a large number of drop outs from schools because of child labor, disability, non-availability of health services and financial conditions of the family, midday meal schemes have been started. It not only helped in increasing the number of children coming to schools but also drastically reduced the number of drop outs.
To ensure proper parent-teacher communication, a Parent-Teacher association was formed. There are few challenges ahead that need to be faced like social equality, girl education, student-teacher ratio etc to achieve the desired literacy rate in Madhya Pradesh.
Secondary Education
M.P. State Open School Board of Secondary Education manages the intermediate education in M.P. It was established in the year 1965 and is involved in recognizing and inspecting new schools and evaluating their performance as well. The board prescribes syllabus for schools affiliated through it and also conduct regular examinations.