Social Audit of
Samagra Shiksha
People-led monitoring of the school education scheme
A digital tool for Cluster Social Auditors and SAFTs to verify infrastructure, safety, finance, teacher, and student entitlements at every government school and feed findings into public hearings and corrective action.
Tool Includes
Seven-tool questionnaire per school.
Inspection checklist with document references.
FGDs with teachers, parents, community, students.
Photo evidence and audit reports.
1500+
Government Schools
16
Districts Covered
7
Audit Tools
100+
Cluster Auditors
Audit Principles
The Social Audit is a fact-finding process — not a fault-finding process — guided by transparency, participation, and dialogue.
Transparency
All findings of the Social Audit are presented in their true form with supporting evidence and made available in the public domain.
Accountability
Accountability is fixed within the Education Department against each provision of the scheme and corrective action is taken against violations.
Participation
The Social Audit is based on community participation — children, parents, and marginalised communities — without discrimination of any kind.
Objectivity
Cluster Social Auditors maintain neutrality throughout the audit process. No sides are taken and no special favour is given.
Dialogue
Solutions to issues identified in the audit are resolved through dialogue between the community and the administration in public hearings.
Child Centered
The direct stakeholders — children and parents — and their rights remain the focus of every Social Audit exercise at all points.
The Seven-Tool Questionnaire
A structured questionnaire covering inspection, interviews, and focus group discussions with every key school stakeholder.
Tool 1A — Basic School Profile
- UDISE code, state, district, block, cluster.
- School name, pin code, lowest and highest class.
- Social audit base year for the school.
- Filled by the SAFT during physical inspection.
Tool 1B — Inspection Checklist
- Infrastructure, safety, finance, teacher, student, vocational.
- Yes / No, exact status, comments, and document checklist.
- Mandatory infrastructure photos for flagged items.
- Drives the bulk of the school-level findings.
Tool 2 — Interview Schedule
- Open-ended interviews with the headmaster and staff.
- Captures qualitative status of school facilities.
- Captures grievances of staff and management.
- General photos uploaded at the end of the tool.
Tool 3 — FGD with Teachers
- Focus group discussion with teaching staff.
- Questions filtered by school level — Primary, Elementary, Secondary.
- Covers TLM, attendance, training, and bottlenecks.
- General photos uploaded at the end of the tool.
Tool 4 — FGD with Parents
- Verifies timely receipt of textbooks, uniforms, and entitlements.
- Captures parent satisfaction with school functioning.
- Sample of parents outside the SMC included.
- General photos uploaded at the end of the tool.
Tool 5 — FGD with Community
- Captures community contribution to the school.
- Identifies barriers to community participation.
- Covers school-community mutual support.
- General photos uploaded at the end of the tool.
Tool 6 — FGD with Students
- Verifies entitlements directly with the students.
- Questions filtered by school level — Primary, Elementary, Secondary.
- Captures student perception of safety and infrastructure.
- General photos uploaded at the end of the tool.
How the Social Audit Works
Five steps from preparation to corrective action, covered through Pre-Audit, Audit, and Post-Audit phases.
Pre-Audit
Master Trainers and Cluster Social Auditors are trained, schedules and SAFTs are constituted.
School Visit
SAFT visits the school, completes the seven-tool questionnaire, and uploads photographic evidence.
Public Hearing
School-wise findings are read out, queries are addressed, and corrective actions are committed.
Action Taken
District authorities take corrective action and submit Action Taken Reports to the State Nodal Officer.
State Report
SAU consolidates findings and the Department reviews the State Social Audit Report for policy action.
Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India