District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)

District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was a centrally—sponsored

scheme launched in 1994, aims at achieving the goal of universalization of
elementary education by giving emphasis on district- specific planning
with decentralized management, participatory processes, empowerment
and capacity building at all levels. The programme is a major initiative to
revitalize the primary education system and to achieve objective of
primary education.

DPEP adopts a holistic approach to universalize access, retention and

improve learning achievement and to reduce disparities among social
groups. 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.

Adopting an “area specific approach” with district as the unit, of planning,

the key strategies of the programme have been to retain the sensitivity to
local conditions and ensuring full participation of the community. It also
seeks to strengthen the capacity of national, state and district institutions
and organisations, for planning, management and professional support in
the field of primary education.

DPEP (phase I) is a project by central government and started in five

states with the help of World Bank, later it was expanded to more States.
Every state is indicated to choose five districts to start this project, with
most backward district where women education is less than national ratio
and districts where TLCs have been successfully leading to enhanced
demand for elementary education.

Objectives of DPEP
The DPEP has specified objectives in its document. Given below is a
collation
of the most important objective which each state has been implementing.

 100% access to education for children in age group of 6 to 14 years

through formal or non-formal education.
 100% enrolment and retention.
 Children should attend minimum level of learning (MLL) by standard
education.
 To control the stagnation and decrease dropout in school.
 Capacity building of teachers and society, maximum
decentralization and community participation.
 To increase the enrolment in school from every unit of society.

In order to materialize this program of education, proper organizational

and administrative set up had also been built up. Education Department of
the Central Government was to give necessary instruction to the State
government regarding the proper utilization of the financial aids given by
the World Bank for the purpose. Further, the States has to create a
Central Committee to give necessary suggestions for its implementation.
Only the provincialized schools of the State Government were included
under this program.

Coverage and Funding

DPEP is a project by central government and started in five states with

the help of World Bank, later it was expanded to more States. Every state
is indicated to choose five districts to start this project, with most
backward district where women education is less than national ratio.

The programme was initially launched in 42 districts of 7 states and has

now been extended to cover 273 districts of 18 states: Assam, Andhra
Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,
Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttranchal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.

In 26 districts of Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, the project came to a

close on 31 December 2002. In 118 districts of DPEP Phase-I, the project
was completed in 2003. Thereafter, the project has continued in 129
districts of states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Orissa; Uttar Pradesh,
West Bengal, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttranchal.

DPEP is an externally funded project, and 85% of the cost is met by the
Government of India and the remaining 15 percent is shared by the
concerned state governments. IDA provided provided $260 million and
$425 million under Phase-I and Phase-II respectively. The European Union
provided $150 million, and The Overseas Development Agency (ODA)
extended a grant of $80.21 million. The grant from the DFID/UNICEF and
Netherlands amounted to $25.8 million.

Major Programme Components of DPEP

There were four major programme components of DPEP. They are:

i. Civil Works: Under the civil works programme construction of new

schools (two room and verandah structure), new additional class
rooms where the school has been expanded up to class-V,
construction of toilets, bore wells, school repairs programme, group
residential school, teachers’ quarters and women’s hostel have
been proposed.
ii. Programme: Several alternative approaches for providing school
facilities to children could not be brought under the formal system
of education are being implemented. DPEP activities are an
essential element in the programme.
iii. Management: DPEP envisages distinct management structures to
facilitate better implementation of the programme, to closely
monitor the activities by developing a Management Information
System (MIS) and to facilitate faster flow of funds. These structures
 are envisaged at the national, state and district levels. These new
structures are supportive to the district plans and are supposed to
get merged with the existing organizational arrangements by the
end of the project period.
iv. School Mapping and Micro Planning: Micro Planning aims at
involving the community in identifying barriers to enrollment and
participation in primary education. It also draws community support
to find solutions to overcome these barriers. Micro planning helps to
fix up the responsibilities by concretizing the role of VEC. These
VECs monitors the educational system of the village and contributes
to the progress of enrollment and retention.

Execution Plan of DPEP

The decentralized planning efforts were mostly initiated through providing
professional support to the state and district levels by national
institutions. The DPEP made a serious effort to translate the idea of
decentralization into an operational practice through various steps:
 The programme identified district as the unit for initiating
decentralized educational planning.
 The programme attempted to alter the pattern of resource decisions
from state level to local levels.
 The programme attempted to strengthen the planning process to
make it more consultative, participatory and transparent.
 It tried to provide professional resource support to academic
activities through new organizational arrangements like the BRCs
and CRCs.
 It attempted to provide support to schools through providing
contingency grants of Rs.2000/=to each school and Rs.500/= to
every teacher annually.
 The planning process tried to create local level capacity both at the
district and sub-district levels.

Strategies and Activities

 Access: Opening new L.P. Schools in tribal area, Multigrade
Learning Centers in remote tribal area and Alternate schools in
remote and backward areas. (Tribal & coastal)
 Tribal and Coastal Education: Enrollment campaign with the help
of volunteers and Panchayat, Awareness programme and free
supply of Text books to tribal children.
 Quality Improvement: Recurrent teacher training on activity-
based pedagogy. Onsite support to teachers through the visits of
BRC trainers and Monthly cluster meetings of teachers, TTC training
for potential SC/ST candidates, Supply of teacher support materials
such as handbooks, activity banks etc, Monthly class PTA meetings
and Sahavasa camp.
 Community Mobilization: Creation of Village Education
Committee and Formation of Panchayat Monitoring Cell (PMC),
training for PMC and Orientation for Parents.
 Research and Evaluation: Action Research Programme, Conduct
of studies at BRC and District level.
 Planning and Management: Orientation for school-based
planning, Annual Plan preparation through participatory process and
Meetings of Block Advisory Committees, District Advisory Board and
District Implementation Committee.
 Identification and Education of Disabled Children (IEDC):
Identification of disabled children, Supply of aids &appliances,
Training to teachers, Orientation for parents, People’s
representatives.
 Girls Education: Free Supply of Text books to girls, Awareness
programme and Teacher sensitation programme.
 Distance Education: Teleconference and Supply of distance
learning material.
 Media: Publishing of Newsletters at District &Block level and
District and Panchayat level exhibition
 Management Information System (MIS): Supply of Computers
and Dial up networking to all DPEP District &State Project Office,
 Appointment of System Analyst cum Programmer, Data Entry
Operators. In every year MIS updating the school data base .In every
month MIS develops the data of SOE (Statement of Expenditure) and
send the same to SPO( State project office).
 Village Education Register and Retention Register: It is a
register which
conveys the educational situation of each boy and girl of all families
in the
village and Retention register is basically to calculate the retention
rate of a
school or a class that is, how many children continue their studies
and how
many drop out.

Impact of the Programme on UEE:

This programme was implemented in a mission mode. A National
Management Structure was set up on the lines of NLMA which would
oversee the implementing of the programme throughout the country and
a situational analysis was conducted to assess the access and retention in
DPEP districts, and to compare the performance of DPEP ones in the
selected states. The analysis was based on secondary sources of data
obtained from the state Directorate of Education and also from the EMIS
established under the DPEP. The following are some of the
findings/observations of the assessment

Coverage

• District Covered – 219 (248 with bifurcated districts)

❑ Phase I (1994 – Sept. 2001) 42
❑ Phase II (1996 – Dec., 2002 80
❑ Phase III (1998 – March, 2003) 27
❑ Other phases 70 (States Covered 18)
Schools

 Schools in the system 3,75,000

 New school added 10,000

Students and Teachers

 Students in the system 513 lakh

 Total no. of teachers 11 lakh

ECE

 ECE center set up 56,124

 Children covered 21 lakh

Alternative Schools (AS)

 AS centers set up 56,124

 Children Covered 21 lakh

Enrollment

 GER* (including enrolment in EGS & AS) 102 %*

 NER* (including enrolment in EGS & AS) 90 %*