District Bathinda is known as educationally backward district in the state. According to the census of 2001 the literacy rate of district is 61.51 percent and it stands at the 13th place as district wise ranking. There is also a gap between rural and urban literacy rate.i.e 75.9% in urban areas and 55.3% in rural areas. Moreover the difference between male female literacy rate is also considerable i.e 68.31% male and 53.76% in females.

According to the census of 2001, the tehsil wise analysis shows that the Talwandi sabo tehsil have the lowest literacy in the district

Table: Tehsilwise Literacy Rate
	Tehsil
Description	Bathinda	Rampura phul	Talwandi	District average
Male	73.21	64.18	60.85	68.31
Female	58.13	55.44	45.46	53.76
Average	66.42	58.42	53.59	61.51

Moreover, it is clear from the table that in Bathinda tehsil, the male female literacy rate and average literacy rate is higher than the average literacy rate of the district. On the other hand these same ratio are below than the district average .

But the district is now receiving due attention in setting up of educational institutes The Punjabi University Patiala has established Guru Kashi Regional Center Bathinda for Post graduation courses, law and B.Ed courses. Similarly it has also started regional campus at Damdama Sahib for management and computer courses. The Govt. Engineering College and Polytechnic has also come up at Bathinda for imparting Degree and Diploma courses respectively. Moreover there are some degree colleges for science, Commerce and Humanaties courses.

So for as the school level educational setup is concerned there are 8 CD Blocks , 6 Educational Blocks and 41 clusters (i.e center schools) at Primary level. Similarly there are 346 Primary schools, 87 Middle, 87 High and 74 Senior Secondary schools are working. Moreover there are so many aided , un aided and recognized schools at various level. There is hardly any village which is without Govt. Primary schools with one or two recognized or un recognized schools.

Demographic Profile
	1991	2001
Population Total	985301	1181236
Male	522961	633249
Female	462340	547987
Rural	719511	829447
Male	381081	444126
Female	338430	385321
Urban	265790	351789
Male	141880	189123
Female	123910	162666
Sex Ratio	884	865
Rural	888	868
Urban	873	860
No of Literates- Total	381877	637048
Male	234893	376695
Female	146984	260353
Rural	234354	400621
Male	148018	240737
Female	86336	159884
Urban	147523	236427
Male	86875	135958
Female	60648	100469
Literacy Rates	43.03	61.51
Male	50.55	68.31
Female	34.51	53.76
Rural	36.42	55.3
Male	44.02	62.46
Female	27.81	47.16
Urban	65.87	75.96
Male	73.11	81.88
Female	57.67	69.19
0-6 Population-Total	257505	145511
Male	138099	81773
Female	119406	63738
Rural	198693	104977
Male	106074	58688
Female	92619	46289
Urban	58812	40534
Male	32025	23085
Female	26787	17449
SC Total -1991	290371	N/A
Male	154952	N/A
Female	135419	N/A
Rural	229631	N/A
Male	122651	N/A
Female	106980	N/A
Urban	60740	N/A
Male	32301	N/A
Female	28439	N/A

Source : Statistical Abstract of Punjab-2002

General
Literacy Rate(2002)			Population 2001
			All Communities			SC	Sex Ratio
T	M	F	T	M	F	T
61.51	68.31	53.76	1181236	633249	547987	354370	865
School Related Statistics
No of Villages	No. of CD Blocks	No. of Edu Blocks	Clusters	No. of schools
				Primary		U.Primary
				Govt.	Aided	Govt.	Aided
285	08	06	41	346	-----	248	13

Educational status is an key indicator of the development level of a country. So there must be the universalisation of education. Although Punjab is a prosperous state but educationally it is not so well. So SSA programme is an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community owned quality education in a mission mode.

Aims Of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

SSA is an effort to universalize elementary education to all children in the 6-14 age group by 2010. The main objectives of SSA are as follows:-

1. Useful and relevant elementary education to all the children in the age 6-14 by 2010.
2. All children complete five year of primary school by 2007.
3. All children complete eight year of elementary schooling by 2010.
4. To improving the quality of education at elementary level.
5. To remove the social and gender gaps.
6. To minimize the drop out rate.

To achieve the above said objective and proper implementation of SSA Project, there is District, Block and village level education committee. Every grant allotted by state Project Director to the District under SSA Project, at the first stage it is released component wise by district Education Committee. To the VEDC´s (Village Education Development Committee).

VEDC constituted by education Department will strive to help raising the educational level of school and making effective. VEDC will undertake the following functions in District.

• Motivate and attract the out of school children in age group 6-14 and their parents for school education.
• To motivate the children engaged in labour, their parents and employees to send their to school.
• To undertake the construction work such as additional class room, sanitation Block repair etc with community participation.
• To consider new plans for raising the educational level and betterment of school.
• To prepare progress reports in addition to that.
• To look after the school building.
• To provide the basic facilities in the schools such as water, electricity furniture, black-boards etc.

In the district VEDC´s are doing well to fulfill the above said objectives. The funds received by these committees, for the year 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 are utilized by effective way.