when was sarva shiksha abhiyan started in india
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan As an intervention programme, it started on 2010 and SSA has been operational since 2000-2001.[1] However, its roots go back to 1993-1994, when the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was launched, with an aim of achieving the objective of universal primary education.[2] DPEP, over several phases, covered 272 districts in 18 states of the country.[3] The expenditure on the programme was shared by the Central Government (85%) and the State Governments. The Central share was funded by a number of external agencies, including the World Bank, DFID and UNICEF.[4] By 2001, more than US$1500 million had been committed to the programme, and 50 million children covered in its ambit. In an impact assessment of Phase I of DPEP, the authors concluded that its net impact on minority children was impressive, while there was little evidence of any impact on the enrolment of girls. Nevertheless, they concluded that the investment in DPEP was not a waste, because it introduced a new approach to primary school interventions in India.[4]