District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)

District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)

The Centrally-Sponsored Scheme of District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)  was launched in 1994 as a major initiative to revitalize the primary education system and to achieve the objective of universalisation of primary education. DPEP is an externally aided project. 85 per cent of the project cost is met by the Central Government and the remaining 15 per cent is shared by the concerned State Government.

DPEP is based on the principle of “additionally” and is structured to fill in the existing gaps by providing inputs over and above the provisions made under central and state sector schemes for primary education. The state governments are required to at least maintain expenditure in real terms at base year level.

The (DPEP) programme consists of a scheme spread over seven years to achieve the following:

1. Decentralized and participatory planning and administration at the district level, involving village leadership, NGOs, schools, district and block personnel. 

2.  Specific strategies to increase enrolment and retention of girls, SC and ST students (identified as gender, caste and tribe 'gaps' in primary education). 

3. Focus on enhancing capacities of teachers by providing workshops for teachers and production of new teaching learning materials to improve student achievement of learning. 

4.  Administrative capacity building at the district and block levels. 

5.  Collection of data and setting up an Education Management and Information System (EMIS)

The basic objectives of DPEP are:

1.   To provide all children access to primary education through either the formal or non-formal stream.

2.   To reduce differences in enrolment, drop-out rates and learning achievement among gender and weaker section groups to less than five percent.

3.   To reduce overall primary dropout rates for all children to less than 10 percent.

4.   To rise the average achievement rate by 25 percent by measured baseline level and ensuring achievement of basic literacy and numeracy competencies and minimum of 40 percent achievement in other competencies by all primary education children.

The DPEP has made decisive impact on increasing enrolment, reducing stagnation and improving class-room transaction. DPEP is an externally aided project. 85 percent of the project cost is met by the Central Government and the remaining 15 percent is shared by the concerned state government. The central government share is resourced through external assistance.

1. DPEP has so far opened more than 1,60,000 new schools, including almost 84,000 alternative schooling (AS) centres. The AS centres cover nearly 3.5 million children, while another two lakh children are covered by Bridge Courses of different types;
2. The school infrastructure created under DPEP has been remarkable. Works either complete or in progress include 52758 school buildings, 58,604 additional classrooms, 16,619 resource centers, 29,307 repair works, 64,592 toilets, and 24,909 drinking water facilities,
3. The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for Phase-I states was around 93 to 95 per cent for the last three years. After the adjustment for the Alternative Schools/Education Guarantee Centers enrolment, the GER in the 2001-02 works out above 100 per cent. In the districts covered under subsequent phases of DPEP, the GER including enrolment of AS/EGS was above 85 per cent;
4. The enrolment of girls has shown significant improvement. In DPEP-I districts, the share of girls enrolment in relation to total enrolment has increased from 48 per cent to 49 per cent, while this increase in the subsequent phases of DPEP districts has been from 46 per cent to 47 per cent;
5. The total number of differently bled children enrolled is now more than 4,20,203 which represents almost 76 per cent of the nearly 5,53,844 differently-abled children identified in the DPEP States;
6. Village Education Committees/School Management Committees have been setup in almost all project villages/habitations/schools,
7. About 1,77,000 teachers, including para-teachers/Shiksha Karmis have been appointed;
8. About 3,380 resource centers at block level and 29,725 centers at cluster level have been set-up for providing academic support and teacher training facilities.

Conclusion

The foregoing discussion notes that the District Primary Education Programme is one of the most significant policy interventions since independence. The DPEP addressed the issue of primary education in holistic perspective, evolved suitable institutional mechanisms for implementation. As a piece in policy evaluation research, DPEP affords a challenging opportunity to the students of public policy as a major effort at including the excluded. More studies are needed to strengthen the programme both in terms of policy and implementation.