Education provides the surest instrument for attaining sustainable development of a high order in a country. In this regard, primary education acts as the basic enabling factor for participation, freedom and overcoming of basic deprivation; whereas secondary education facilitates economic development and establishment of social justice. Over the years, liberalisation and globalisation have led to rapid changes in scientific and technological world and have prompted the general needs of improved quality of life and reduced poverty. This undoubtedly necessitates the school leavers to acquire higher levels of knowledge and skills than what they are essentially imparted with throughout the eight years of elementary education. Also, a crucial stage in the educational hierarchy, secondary education empowers children to aggrandise nations by preparing them for higher education and also the world of work.

Following the recommendations of New Education Policy of 1986 and Programme of Action, 1992 the Government of India initiated different schemes to support children of secondary and higher secondary schools at different points in time. The IEDSS (formerly IEDC), Girls' Hostel, Vocational Education and ICT@schools schemes were started with the overall objective of providing accessible, and relevant secondary education of good quality in India. In partnership with State Government and Local Self Government, RMSA was the most recent addition to these four existing schemes.

Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is the nodal central government ministry to coordinate RMSA with the help of RMSA State Implementation Societies (SIS) in each state. However, there are a lot of support arrangements and institutions available for better implementation of RMSA. A National Resource Group (NRG) provides guidance for bringing about reforms in teaching learning processes, curriculum, teaching learning material, ICT education and mechanisms of monitoring and evaluation. The Technical Support Group (TSG) supported by MHRD, is a constituent of the NRG and has a direct reporting relationship with the ministry. TSG provides technical and operational support and expertise to national and state level teams.

Besides this, various sub-committees like Curriculum Reform Subcommittee, Teacher and Teacher Development Subcommittee, ICT Subcommittee and Planning and Management Subcommittee have been constituted under NRG. These subcommittees comprise members from the TSG and meet thrice a year to apprise themselves of the progress made on mutually set goals and commitments. In addition, NCERT and NUEPA support through dedicated RMSA units. RMSA-TCA has also been set-up for capacity building support with the assistance of DFID. In terms of financial inputs, the central share is released to the implementing agencies directly, whereas the applicable state share is also released to the agencies by the respective State Governments.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools have been subsumed in the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). Now ICT in Schools is a component of the RMSA. The Scheme is a major catalyst to bridge the digital divide amongst students of various socio economic and other geographical barriers. The Scheme provides support to States/UTs to establish computer labs on sustainable basis.