A programme for Indian school education
The World Bank is lending a US$500 million (approximately Rs.3,700 crore) for the implantation of Rs.5,718 crore Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project of Ministry of Education. The rest of financing will come from the participating States over a period of 5 years.
The World Bank signed an agreement for the STARS support with Department of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Education (MOE) on 29 Jan 2021.
The STARS project would be implemented as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme under Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), MOE.
Earlier the Cabinet has approved the proposal of STARS project on 14 Oct 2020. The project covers Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha. These States will be supported for various interventions for improving the quality of education.
The Program envisions improving the overall monitoring and measurement activities in the Indian school education system through interventions in selected states. STARS will draw on existing structure under Samagra Shiksha with the DoSEL, MoE as the main implementing agency at the national level. At the State level, the project will be implemented through the integrated State Implementation Society (SIS) for Samagra Shiksha.
The proposed World Bank support under STARS is primarily in the form of a results-based financing instrument called Program for Results (PforR). This will ensure major reforms at the State level through a set of disbursement-linked indicators (DLIs).
A State Incentive Grant (SIG) will be used to encourage States to meet desired project outcomes. The SIG matrix has been aligned with the intermediate outcome indicators as per the requirement of PforR instrument. An independent Verification agency (IVA) will verify each result before disbursement of funds.
The STARS project will be instrumental in the implementation of various recommendations of National Education Policy 2020 i.e. Strengthening Early Childhood Education and Foundational Learning, Improving Learning Assessment System, ICT-enabled approaches in education, Teachers Development and Vocational education among others, said MOE. #financing #banking #education /fiinews.com
