Highlights:
World Bank Approval of USD 500 Million
Six States of India to Improve Quality of Education System
World Bank approved 500 million USD
World Bank for the improvement of quality in the education system of India has sanctioned 500 million US dollar. This is in support of the National e-Governance Plan.
National e-Governance Plan
The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) benefits the country in many ways. It takes a complete view of the e-Governance proposal across the country. Then, these proposals integrate into a collective vision.
The final idea is to bring public services closer to citizens in their locality. This is the Vision of NeGP, to make all Government services reachable to the common man in his locality. This would increase the efficiency, transparency, and reliability of the outcome.
Government declaration of latest updates on May 18, 2006, reveals, the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). It consists of 27 Mission Mode Projects and 8 components. Out of which, 4 projects – Health, Education, PDS and Posts were introduced in 2011, to make the list of 27 MMPs to 31 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs).
The approval of NeGP alone does not comprise financial approval(s) for all the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and components under it. The financial approval is another long process for the MMP category projects because it goes all the way from Central Ministries, States, and State Departments to verify and improvise with the objectives of NeGP.
World Bank Fund 500 million USD Announced
Mark Dutz, Senior Economist at the bank gave the green light to NeGP by approving 500 million US dollar. World Bank approved the Indian government’s e-governance project concept in 2005.
The World Bank approval of funds comes after the government of India happening a dialogue with the World Bank for possible support for its National e-Governance Plan (NEGP).
The final decision is then taken within the next nine to 12 months subject to government dialogue and preparation.
World Bank in addition to funds also helps in skill-building and provides professional and other expertise.
R Chandrashekhar, Joint Secretary in DIT (Directorate of Information Technology), looking after the entire programme said, the Department would soon bring out the guidelines for skill building for e-governance projects.
NeGP has identified 25 projects as Mission Mode, out of which 10 are in the state sector and 8 in the central sector and 7 are integrated ones.
Planning Commission in 2005-06 has allocated Rs 300 crores as additional central assistance for NEGP. The DIT’s own allocation is also of the same amount.
The World Bank has now announced further 500 million USD credit to add with the funds already provided by the Government of India, the Indian states, the European Commission and the United Kingdom, to support India’s national programme for bringing quality in the universal elementary education.
India’s Elementary Education Project
India’s elementary education project cost is 3.5 billion dollars for three and a half years. This comes under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) project. The main objective is to reduce the number of children not going to school by at least nine million, overcome gender discrimination, narrow the social gaps and improve the quality of education.
Michael Carter, World Bank’s country director for India said, when a country like India fails in providing access to basic education, then, one child is one too many because India is highly populated.
World Bank has said, India is remarkable in bringing the changes in the education system, because, the decline in the number of children not going to school has decreased tremendously. The out of school children between the ages of 6 and
14 has scaled down from 39 million in 1999 to 25 million in 2003.
In spite of this achievement, India still has to fight for one-quarter of the world’s 104 million out-of-school children. India has to ensure that all
children between the ages of 6 and 14 will ultimately receive
eight years of education.
Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS)
The Executive Directors of the World Bank Board has approved today 500 million USD for Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program (STARS). Its main aim is to improve the quality and governance of school education in six Indian states Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan.
So, with this program, about 250 million students (between the age of 6 and 17) in 1.5 million schools and more than 10 million teachers will benefit from this program.
The STARS program will create a long partnership between India and the World Bank (since 1994), for the reinforcement of public school education. This will also support the country’s aspirations of providing ‘Education for All’. Before the STARS, the Bank had already provided total support of more than 3 billion USD towards this goal.
India is continuously making significant changes in improving access to education across the country. The increase in school going children from 2004-05 and 2018-19, has reached to 248 million from 219 million. But, the learning outcomes of students across all age groups continue to remain low.
STARS program will concentrate on the ‘learning outcome’ challenge and help students better prepare for the jobs for the future.
Reform Initiatives for World Bank Approval of USD 500 Million
STARS program will directly provide services at the state, district and sub-district levels by providing modified local-level solutions towards school improvement.
Looking at the demands from stakeholders, especially parents, and for greater answerability, the better data system is maintained to assess the quality of learning. This will give special attention to students from vulnerable sections. Over 52 per cent of children in the government-run schools in the six project states belong to vulnerable sections, such as Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and minority communities. This program would help to maintain a curriculum that would keep swiftness with the rapidly evolving needs of the job market.
This program will also provide support for teacher development program. Will also give them an opportunity to remain updated and making them specific with their teaching needs.
The foundation learning for children in classes 1 to 3 will strengthen more. This will prepare children with the cognitive, socio-behavioural and language skills to meet future labour market needs.
India is well aware of the need to improve its learning outcomes significantly. This will create future growth market and meet the demands of the labour market.
Junaid Ahmad, World Bank Country Director in India said, it is essential to strengthening the skills of teachers. Also, no child of any vulnerable sections is left behind from the right to education. For both, the aspects STARS will support in meeting out all the challenges of India.
Spending more at the primary level of education will furnish better children. Students later will have skills required to compete for the jobs of the future.
World Bank Approval of USD 500 million loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has the deadline of 14.5 years. This includes a grace period of five years also.
The external links are:
https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/world-bank-clears-usd-500-million-to-improve-quality-of-education-system-in-six-indian-states
https://zeenews.india.com/home/wb-announces-500-million-credit-for-indian-education_155259.html
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/06/24/new-world-bank-project-to-improve-quality-of-indias-education-system
https://zeenews.india.com/home/world-bank-offers-usd-500-million-assistance-for-egovernance_206521.html
The internal links are:
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