This is the COVID-19 Crises time and we must focus on addressing the issues related to COVID-19. First we came to know about New Education Policy 2020 and now we came to know about the Project STARS.
The World Bank Project STARS (Strengthening Teacher-learning and Results for States)- to fund various educational programmes in six states including Himachal Pradesh. The important point to note is that the World Bank will be only supporting 15 % of the total budget but they will be holding and guiding the whole Project STARTS. We must understand and take a stand.
The World Bank Project STARS (Strengthening Teacher-learning and Results for States)- to fund various educational programmes in six states including Himachal Pradesh. The important point to note is that the World Bank will be only supporting 15 % of the total budget but they will be holding and guiding the whole Project STARTS. We must understand and take a stand.
Total cost of this project is 3.346 Billion US Dollar with 15% contribution (loan) of World Bank, it means 80/ of total project money will be contributed by Union Govt and States, this is the way for world bank to legitimise entry into policy making while contributing very little in terms of loan amount of INR 5000 crores is tiny compared to financing needs. The project will cover 6 states Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. A national framework is being proposed to engage private sector and promote PPPs. There is excessive focus on assessments and use of technology, instead addressing the severe challenges facing by concerned states in education.
The project STARS or “Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States” is a quarter trillion
rupees education project in six states in India, part-funded by a loan from the World Bank. A portion of the funds are proposed to be spent in partnership with non-state actors including handing over
operation and management of government schools to non-state actors, outsourcing services, seeking
support of management firms/NGOs and direct benefit transfers as school vouchers. The overarching
framing of the loan needs to be revised in context of the COVID-19 pandemic, pilot partnerships with
the private sector should be removed and replaced with measures to strengthen the public sector, and
a stronger focus on equity built in.
Its components include: strengthening early years education; improving learning assessment
systems, particularly India’s participation in PISA 20212, competency-based assessments, and
Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation(CCE); strengthening classroom instruction and
remediation; improving teacher development and school leadership; facilitating school to work/
higher education transition; and, strengthening the district as the unit of planning. As such, it seeks
to further the stated objectives of the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and is in line with the existing
government objectives. There are many components in the same which support actions that are
beneficial to India.
The STARS project risks significant diversion of Indian taxpayers’ funds to an array of private
actors, introduces the privatisation of education in six of India’s states, and changes the framing for
the private sector’s engagement with education in India as a whole. Accordingly, understanding the
provisions of the loan is not just of academic interest, but would be critical for engaging with the
loan process and the project as a whole, which is likely to have far-reaching impacts on the Indian
education system. We acknowledge the improvement made in the framing of the loan through
removing mention of a 20% earmark for partnerships in the Bank’s Programme Information
Documents (PID). However, we feel that this change does not address the substantial concerns
on the content that remain.
The specific concerns with the project and the loan which need to discuss and addressed before it is passed/ approved.
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