Vision:
SSA has been operational in Assam since 2000-2001. With the passage of the RTE Act, changes need to be incorporated into the SSA approach, strategies and norms. The changes are not merely confined to norms for providing teachers or classrooms, but encompass the vision and approach to elementary education as evidenced in the shift to child-centric focus entitlements and quality elementary education in regular schools.
- Holistic view of Education, as interpreted in the National Curriculum Framework 2005, implies a systemic revamp of the entire content and process of education with significant implications for curriculum, teacher education, educational planning and management.
- Equity, means not only equal opportunity, but also creation of conditions in which the disadvantaged sections of the society – children of SC, ST, Muslim minority, girl children, children of landless agricultural workers and children with special needs, etc. – can avail of the opportunity.
- Access, is not confined to ensuring that a school becomes accessible to all children within specified distance but implies an understanding of the educational needs and predicament of the traditionally excluded categories – the SC, ST and others sections of the most disadvantaged groups, the Muslim minority, girls in general, and children with special needs.
- Gender concern, implies not only an effort to enable girls to keep pace with boys but to view education in the perspective spelt out in the National Policy on Education 1986 /92; i.e. a decisive intervention to bring about a basic change in the status of women.
- Centrality of teacher, to motivate them to innovate and create a culture in the classroom, and beyond the classroom, that might produce an inclusive environment for children, especially for girls from oppressed and marginalized backgrounds.
- Moral compulsion is imposed through the RTE Act on parents, teachers, educational administrators and other stakeholders, rather than emphasis on punitive processes.
- Convergent and integrated system of educational management is a pre-requisite for implementation of the RTE law. All states must move in that direction as speedily as feasible.
Mission:
- Programme with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.
- A response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.
- An opportunity for promoting social justice through basic education.
- An expression of political will for universal elementary education across the country.
- A partnership between the central, state and the local government.
- An opportunity for states to develop their own vision of elementary education.
- An effort at effective involving the Panchyati Raj Institutions, school management Committees, village and urban slum level Education Committees, parent’s Teachers’ Associations, Mother-Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous councils and other grassroots level structures in the management of elementary schools.
