PIB – 15 September 2021

INITIATIVES TOWARDS EDUCATION

Focus: GS-II Social Justice

Initiatives for quality education in Rural Areas

Samagra Shiksha

• The Government of India has launched Samagra Shiksha – an Integrated Scheme for school education, which is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII and aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education. 
• It envisages the ‘school’ as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to senior secondary levels and subsumes the three erstwhile centrally sponsored schemes i.e., Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
• Bridging gender and social category gaps at all levels of school education is one of the major objectives of the scheme.
• The scheme reaches out to girls and children belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), minority communities and transgender.
• The scheme also gives attention to urban deprived children, children affected by periodic migration and children living in remote and scattered habitations.
• Under the scheme, provision has been made for giving preference to Special Focus Districts (SFDs), Educationally Backward Blocks (EEBs), LWE affected districts, and aspirational districts while planning interventions like setting up of primary schools, upper primary schools, construction of additional classrooms, toilets, Kasturba Gandhi BalikaVidyalayas (KGBVs).

PM eVIDYA

A comprehensive initiative called PM eVIDYA has been initiated which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education.

The initiative includes:

1. DIKSHA the nation’s digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education in states/UTs:  and QR coded Energized Textbooks for all grades (one nation, one digital platform)
2. One earmarked TV channel in SWAYAM PRABHA per class from 1 to 12 (one class, one channel)
3. SWAYAM Portal, E-PATHASHALA, extensive use of Radio, Community radio and CBSE Podcast- ShikshaVani
4. Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) and in sign language on NIOS website/ YouTube.

NATIONAL RIVER CONSERVATION PROGRAMME (NRCP)

Focus: GS-III Environment and Ecology

Introduction

Cleaning and rejuvenation of rivers is a continuous process, and Central Government is supplementing the efforts of the State Governments and Union Territories in addressing the challenges of pollution abatement of rivers by providing financial and technical assistance through National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) for identified polluted river stretches.

National River Conservation Plan (NRCP)

• The Central Government started the river pollution abatement programme with the launching of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP-I) in the year 1985.
• Subsequently, the GAP Phase II was launched in 1993 for pollution abatement of river Yamuna and Gomti, major tributaries of river Ganga.
• The river pollution abatement programme was further expanded to include other major rivers of the country in 1995 under the aegis of National River Conservation Plan (NRCP).
• Finally, in 1996, GAP Phase II was also merged with the NRCP and all projects for river cleaning in the country was brought under one umbrella scheme of NRCP.
• The objective of NRCP is to reduce the pollution load in rivers through implementation of various pollution abatement works, thereby improving their water quality.

The pollution abatement works taken up under the NRCP include:

• Interception and diversion work / laying of sewerage systems to capture raw sewage flowing into the rivers through open drains and diverting them for treatment.
• Setting up of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) for treating the diverted Sewage.
• Construction of Low-Cost Sanitation Toilets to prevent open defecation on river banks.
• Construction of Electric Crematoria and Improved Wood Crematoria to conserve the use of wood.
• River Front Development works, such as improvement of bathing Ghats.
• Public participation & awareness and capacity building, etc.