Art. 45 of the Constitution detects that the state shall to provide free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14 years. The 93rd Amendment Act made education a Fundamental Right for children in age group of 6-14 years. The National Policy of Education envisaged that free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality should be provided to all children unto the age of 14 years before the commencement of 21st century.
The issues primarily related to the primary education can be classified into three universal endeavor access, universal retention and universal achievement. As a result of the efforts made by the government 94 per cent of the country’s rural population have primary school within one km.
This has resulted in increased enrolment Especially of girls and SCs/ STs, increased number of teachers, decreased dropout rates and improved levels of achievements in the schools. The key elements relates to the improvement of primary education are:
i. Creating parental awareness and community mobilization;
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ii. Involvement of communities and PRI (72nd and 74th Constitutional Amendments);
iii. Economic incentives;
iv. Improvement in the content and process of schooling;
v. District Primary Education Programms initiative; and
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vi. National Programme of National support to Primary Education (Mid-Day means scheme)