Sharma, Rashmi
(2018)
Fault lines in government and the trajectory of education
programmes: lessons from DPEP and SSA.
Learning Curve (30).
pp. 69-73.
Abstract
The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)
and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) that followed
it, have been critical programmes for elementary
education in India. DPEP aimed at making primary
education universal, while the goal of SSA was
to make elementary education universal. Both
sought to reduce gender and social inequities in
education and improve learning levels. As these
programmes progressed, they were pivotal not
only in implementing policy, but also in creating it
and changing institutional structure. In DPEP and
SSA, new schools and supporting institutions were
set up, new policies regarding teachers evolved,
and pedagogic practices, i.e. textbooks, teaching
methodology, student evaluation etc. were
impacted.
As an Indian Administrative Service officer, I was
happy to work in the DPEP and SSA, because I
was keenly interested in elementary education.
But surprisingly, this experience led me back to
a renewed interest in my core work: the working
of government. As I collaborated with colleagues
within and outside the government on pedagogic
issues such as textbook writing, teacher training,
student evaluation etc., various non-pedagogic
‘events’ took place, which eclipsed concerns about
teaching and learning, and swept along our efforts
in unexpected directions. It became clear to me that
the quality of elementary education was at least as
dependent on how the government worked, as it
was on the curriculum, the quality of textbooks and
teacher training and that government reforms were
a necessary condition for the reform of education.
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