Everything you wanted to know about ‘Shagun’

HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ recently launched one of the world’s largest ‘Integrated online junction for school education’ – Shagun – in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Pokhriyal said that the word Shagun is coined from two different words – ‘Shala’ meaning schools and ‘Gunvatta’ meaning quality; and this online junction of different websites and portals into a single platform will enhance the accessibility of information relating to schools and will ensure a holistic approach to transform education sector.

The official press release by the government describes Shagun as ‘an over-arching initiative to improve school education system by creating a junction for all online portals and websites relating to various activities of the department of school education and literacy in the government of India and all states and union territories.’

Shagun will have the following:

1. Links of 1200 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 600 Navodaya Vidyalayas, 18000 other CBSE affiliated schools, 30 SCERTs, 19000 organisations affiliated with NTCE among others.
2. Report cards of 15 lakh schools from all over the country.
3. It will connect about 92 lakh teachers and 26 crore students.
4. It will have a very robust feedback mechanism. Common people can directly give their feedback about schools thus ensuring public participation and accountability and transparency.
5. Vital information relating to availability of nearby schools, navigable distance vis-a vis aerial distance between schools thereby helping the policy makers in taking informed decisions.
6. One can learn about the schemes and their comprehensive monitoring, and know about the best practices in the schools all over the country.
7. Videos, testimonials, images and case studies of best practices of the central government, the autonomous bodies and the states and UTs in the school education sector.
8. Its Vidyanjali application will act as an interface for those who want to contribute in the education sector either through donation or by sharing their valuable knowledge/ experiences with the school children.
9. In future, the government plans to integrate the portal with the MIS systems of states and UTs to capture information relating to vacancies, attendance of teachers and students, pensionary benefits, etc.

Government is hopeful that the portal will benefit all the stakeholders in the education world. As per the Shagun portal, “Parents and the general public will get comprehensive information on the school next door and will also have the option of giving feedback to the authorities on any pertinent issue thereby enhancing credibility and accountability. Teachers and heads of schools will be empowered to improve their classroom teaching by accessing effective teaching techniques (through DIKSHA and websites of NCERT, NCTE). Students will have access to e-content and learning portals like ePathshala, DIKSHA, NROER, which will enhance their learning. Policy makers will have access to all necessary information (through the UDISE+, school GIS application, data analytics and PGI portals) for taking evidence based decisions. Best practices followed and innovations made by one State/UT can be emulated by others (through the Shagun repository). The researcher (through the data analytics portal) will have recourse to a vast reservoir of data on all aspects of school education.”

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