Govt. launches 'ShaGun' - a web-portal for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

To put an innovative progress in elementary education sector of the country by continuous monitoring of the flagship scheme - Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar yesterday launched a dedicated web portal 'ShaGun', which has been prepared by World Bank in collaboration with Ministry of Human Resource Development.

On this occasion, the Union Minister also reiterated government's commitment for improving the 'Quality' of Education.

He said that "In this direction Ministry of HRD will be codifying the learning outcome to set assessment standards for abilities with regards to comprehension, mathematics, language etc. and thus ensuring that "all children acquire at least the minimum levels of learning" from Class I to Class VIII under Right to Education Act, 2009".

"Learning Outcomes are assessment standards indicating the expected levels of learning that children should achieve for that class. These outcomes can be used as check points to evaluate learning at different points of time," Javadekar said.

The learning outcomes would help teachers to understand the learning levels of children in their respective classes individually as well as collectively. Learning outcomes should be the point of reference for conducting achievement surveys. Hence it is necessary that the defined Learning Outcomes are also shared with parents and community at large," he added.

The HRD ministry has uploaded draft document on its website in this regard to invite comments and suggestions through email address given.

Javadekar, launching this e-initiative, termed it as a global democratic forum enabled by technology which will give a peek in the Indian elementary education scenario and spread constructive lessons.

He highlighted that this first-of-its kind platform will give due recognition to people, state governments, schools, teachers working towards improving elementary education across the country.

The Union Minister further emphasized that 'ShaGun' will help monitor progress of implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) by assessing performance of states and UTs on key parameters and thereby serve as a platform for the central government for effective planning and deliver on the promise of providing quality education to all.

ShaGun, which has been coined from the words 'Shala' meaning schools and 'Gunvatta' meaning quality, has been developed with a twin track approach.

First, is the repository with an engaging interface that focuses on positive stories and developments in the field of school education.

In this repository, best practices will be documented in the form of videos, testimonials, case studies, and images, which will display state-level innovations and success stories that are driving improvements in performance under SSA.

This repository has a decentralised management structure that enables state governments to choose, upload and manage their own content.

Secondly, it has an online monitoring module to measure state-level performance and progress against key educational indicators.

It has been developed to collect and report data which will enable the government and administrators to track the efficiency with which SSA funds are being utilised and the results that this is delivering.

SSA is a centrally sponsored scheme providing universal access to education to children in the age group of six to fourteen years of age.

Also, 'Toolkit for Master Trainers in Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs' is the series of five training modules will provide the teachers with practical information on effective inclusion of Children With Special Needs (CWSN) and build those pedagogical practices that would address the needs of all children with special needs.