New Delhi, September 10: The government’s flagship programme Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan (SSA) has helped in expansion of education with nearly 99 per cent of the habitations getting a primary school even as quality of teachers remains a major concern.
“Quality teachers is a major challenge before the country. Teachers lacking qualification will get the training in the next three years as per the Right To Education Act,” HRD Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters today.
Under SSA, 3.04 lakh new primary schools have been sanctioned while 2.70 lakh have already been operationalised.
Similarly, against sanctioned recruitment of 12.27 lakh teachers at primary and upper primary levels, about 9.86 lakh have been recruited by March this year, Sibal said.
However, with regard to appointment of teachers, certain states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are lagging behind, he said.
SSA, which aims at universalisation of elementary education, reaches to over 19 crore children in 12 lakh schools in the country.
A budget allocation of Rs 13,100 crore has been made for 2009-10, against which an amount of Rs 4,919 crore has been released to states and Union Territories by August this year.
—Agencies