(LiveMint)
The Union government on Wednesday cleared a ₹5,718 crore centrally sponsored scheme for improving education outcomes with World Bank aid in six states and announced that a similar programme will be rolled out in five other states.
The scheme aims to ensure that learning is based on understanding of the subject, that language learning will be the focus up to third standard and exams will be reformed, Union minister of information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said at a cabinet briefing. Students achieving minimum proficiency in languages and improvements in secondary school completion rate are also among the goals of the scheme.
The project titled Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) will get $500 million financial support from the World Bank. It will cover Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha, said Javadekar. “A similar programme with ADB (Asian Development Bank) cooperation will be rolled out in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Assam, and Tamil Nadu. This is an important milestone at the time the new education policy is being rolled out,” the minister said. The programme seeks to help states in improving education and in better “labour market outcomes”.
