The project will cover Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha over five years
New Delhi: The Ministry of Education has signed an agreement with the World Bank for financial support of the Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project to be implemented in six states.
The project, signed here on Friday, aims to improve the overall measurement and monitoring activities in the Indian school system, the ministry said in an official statement.
The total cost of the project is Rs 5718 crore and the World Bank will provide a financial support of Rs 3,700 crore and rest participating States will share, over a period of 5 years.
The project will cover the six states of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha over five years. The identified States will be supported for various interventions for improving the quality of education.
STARS project would be implemented as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme under Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), MOE. Earlier Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of STARS project on 14th Oct 2020.
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.
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 etc.
