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The World Bank and the Ministry of Education (MoE) have finalised an agreement for the World Bank’s financial support towards implementing the Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project. The agreement was signed by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), the World Bank and the Ministry of Education. The project will focus on addressing the ‘learning outcomes’ challenge in India and help students better prepare for the jobs of the future.
The total cost of the STARS project is ₹5718 crore, with the financial support from the World Bank amounting to $500 million (approximately ₹3700 crore). The rest of the cost is expected to be shared by the participating states, over a period of 5 years.
STARS would be implemented as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), MoE. Earlier in October 2020, the Union Cabinet had approved the proposal of the STARS project, which would cover six states ― Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha. The identified States will be supported at various levels 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 structures under Samagra Shiksha program, 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 the PforR instrument. An independent Verification agency (IVA) will verify each result before the funds are disbursed.
STARS is expected to be instrumental in the implementation of various recommendations of National Education Policy 2020, such as strengthening early childhood education and foundational learning, improving learning assessment systems, ICT-enabled approaches in education, teachers development, vocational education etc.
(Published from PIB)