Gujarat is rapidly marching ahead on the growth route and its momentum also touches the people world over. ‘Panchamrut' – a concept given by the Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi is showing a path of future development in 21st century. Out of the five powers in Pachamrut, the power of knowledge or the ‘Gyan Shakti' is quite important for an all-round growth of a person.
In the past years the scene in education sector was quite discouraging. Majority of the children were either not going to the schools or leaving the study in between. Drop-out ratio was high and Gujarat was not in the top list in the field of education.
The sudden transformation started taking place with the Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi's concept of Gyan Shakti. The concept acted as philosopher's stone which has shown the state a new direction in the field of education. Chief Minister sensed the need of girl's education in the state asked people to provide education to their girl child. Not only that, he devised a special fund called Chief Minister Kanya Kelavni Nidhi where he started donating all the amounts of the gifts received by him. Under his guidance, state government initiated many innovative programmes especially Kanya Kelavni (Girl Child Education) and Shala Praveshotsav (School Enrollment Drive) to encourage providing education to girl children of the state and to bring about an inclusive growth. Here is a brief note of some of such programmes and achievements attained under them.
Girl Child Education and School Enrollment drive
Since 2003-04, the state government is organizing Girl Child Education and School Enrollment drive in the month of June with a view to give push to education of the girl child. Chief Minisiter, other ministers, parliamentary secretaries and government officials visits different schools in talukas.Due to the efforts in this direction, the drop-out rate in primary schools has been reduced to 2.09% in the year 2010-11 from 17.83% of the year 2003-04, whereas drop-out rate in class 1-7 has decreased from 28% to 7.95%. As per the figures of census 2001, female literacy rate in India and Gujarat was 53.70% and 57.80% respectively, which has reached to 65.45% and 70.73% respectively in the year 2011. School enrollment is about to reach 100% mark.
Kanya Kelavani Nidhi (Girl Child Education Fund)
With a view to encourage providing education to the girl children in the state, a special fund called Chief Minister's Kanya Kelavani Nidhi has been devised. Gifts received by the Chief Minister are being sold and the amount is being deposited in this fund. Apart from that the donations of various donors and organizations are also deposited in the fund. The amount of the fund has reached to Rs.44-crore by now.
Financial assistance is being provided to the girls of backward talukas who are studying in medical or engineering colleges and also to the girls studying in class-11/12 for getting professional coaching.
To those girls who take admission in SPIPA to prepare for civil services exam are given an assistance of Rs.10,000. A prize of Rs.5,000 is given to first three girl topers in HSC/SSC exams in each talukas and a prize of Rs.5,000 is given to first three differently able girl toppers in HSC/SSC exams in each taluka.
Achievements in the Golden Jubilee Year:
Potable water has been provided to all the 32772 schools of the state. As the students can use the modern equipments like computer and projector, schools are provided with the power supply. Separate sanitation facilities have been prepared in the schools for boys and girls. Primary education has been divided into two parts. According to which class 1-5 is considered as primary standards and class 6-8 are considered as higher primary standards. Provision of a graduate teacher has been made for higher primary schools so as to provide quality knowledge to the children in math, science and English language subjects. About 10,000 Vidhya Sahayak were recruited in the span of just one month. And about 13,000 Vidhya Sahayak will be recruited in the year 2011-12.
Facilities provided to primary schools:
- 1,21,358 vidhya sahayak recruited
- 75,748 classrooms built
- 50,914 sanitation units built
- 21,088 science laboratories
- 4,53,409 wooden benches for the students of class 5, 6,7
- 13,560 schools provided with computers
- 32,772 schools connected to power supply
- 32,772 schools provided with potable water
People's contribution:
| Year | Cash | Amount of other items | Total Rs. |
| 2006 | 5704317 | 40646752 | 46351069 |
| 2007 | 10310683 | 41002012 | 51312695 |
| 2008 | 6335979 | 66424668 | 72760647 |
| 2009 | 11061247 | 86044157 | 97105404 |
| 2010 | 12388776 | 908358822 | 103224598 |
Vidhyalakshmi Scheme:
With a view to raise the female literacy rate in the state, Vidhyalakshmi scheme has been started. Villages having a literacy rate lower than 35% and the BPL families in the urban areas are covered under the scheme.
Under this scheme, Narmda Shri Nidhi Bond of Rs.1000 is given to the girls enrolled in class-1. When the girl finishes studies till class-7, entire amount of the bond is given to her along with the interest.
Vidhyalakshmi Bond:
| Year | Benefited girls | Bond amount |
| 2006-07 | 1,16,300 | 11,63,00,000 |
| 2007-08 | 1,47,506 | 14,75,06,000 |
| 2008-09 | 1,28,757 | 12,87,57,000 |
| 2009-10 | 1,11,553 | 11,15,53,000 |
| 2010-11 | 1,04,319 | 10,43,19,000 |
Gunotsav:
Encouraging results have been received under the Girl Child Education and School Enrollment programmes. Schools are provided with sufficient number of teachers and other facilities. Teachers are equipped with quality training. With a view to raise the quality of learning among the children Gunotsav is being organized.In this ninth consecutive year programmes will be held under the guidance of Education Minister Shri Ramanlal Vora, Minister of State for Education Shri Jaysinhji Chauhan and Vasuben Trivedi. Kanya Kelvani Yatra and School Enrollment will be held in villages on June 16-17-18, 2011 in all the 32772 primary schools. For cities the same will be held on June 23-24-25 2011. For the three days, Chief Minister, other ministers, secretaries, government officials and people's leaders will visit the schools in 18000 villages, 151 municipalities and eight municipal corporations in order to encourage education.
“Education is the only tool to fight against poverty and helplessness and diseases. Villages should reach to a position where the educated children of the villages make the uneducated elders literate persons”, says Chief Minister. Let us all participate in bringing social upliftment and in realizing the deep deliberations of the Chief Minister.
