Rajiv Gandhi Prathmik Shiksha Mission

Education Guarantee Scheme

Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) was launched by the state government in March 1997 to provide primary schooling facilities to accessless habitations. Through this scheme the government gave a guarantee for providing education facility through a trained teacher within 90 days of a demand being raised by the parents of at least the prescribed minimum number of children not having any primary education facility withhin a distance of one kilometer from their home.

The scheme was conceived as a demand driven scheme. The state committed itself to providing primary education facility within 90 days of any demand within the norms stated above. This was the first time any government in the country gave such a guarantee for education which could be invoked against itself. The parents had the right to choose their own teacher from amongst matriculate youths of their village. This "guruji" was paid a honorarium of Rs.500 per month. Cost of stationery, contingencies and teaching learning material worked out to a total annual recurring cost of only Rs.6500. Training etc. accounted for a one-time non-recurring cost of Rs.2000. Thus, a new primary education facility in the form of an EGS centre could be created at a first year investment of only Rs.8500. This compared favourably with the first year cost of a 40 child 2 teacher primary school cost of Rs.10600. The community had the full right to appoint or dismiss the guruji. It could decide its own vacations. On the other hand, the community had to provide building facility for running the centre.

Subsequently, EGS centres were also brought under the fold of the mid day meal programme. A total of 867 centres were opened within 17 months of the launch of the scheme. It was this low cost, demand-driven, community-based scheme which proved to be the solution for the long-standing and seemingly insurmountable problem of inaccessibility in tribal districts like Dhar where population was dispersed into small hamlets spread far apart.

899 guruji's are teaching more than 32000 enrolled children in 869 centres. One-sixth of all enrolled children in the district are today enrolled in EGS centres. Nearly 60% of these are girls. Clearly, by tackling the problem of access to primary schooling facility, the Scheme has achieved seminal success in ensuring education to the girl child.

The District has prepared wide ranging program to strengthen the EGS centres. Under this programme the EGS centres have been clubbed with the nearest cluster resource centre to provide pedagogic and resource support to the guruji's of the EGS. Special induction-cum-condensed training programme has also been launched for the teachers.

The links below would give a clear picture of the efforts taken for promoting literacy in the district.


The story of access
A school with an alternative package
Education Guarantee Scheme
Civil works
Special drive on repairs
Bringing the child to the school
Keeping the child in the school
In the world of the handicapped
Multi-grade education