Odisha along with five other States is set to derive the benefits from the Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results (STARS) project.
The project covers six States, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, which would be supported for various interventions for improving the quality of education.
The total project cost is Rs 5718 crore with financial support of the World Bank amounting to US $ 500 million (approximately Rs 3,700 crore) and rest coming as States’ shares over a period of five years.
In a move to improve quality of education and facilitating a technology-centric and innovation-driven initiative, the Odisha Government would implement the STARS project spending nearly Rs 1,000 crore. Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra has approved the proposal.
An agreement for the financial support for this project of the Union Ministry of Education has been signed between the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and the World Bank along with the Ministry of Education.
The project, which would be implemented as a new Centrally-sponsored scheme, would draw on the existing structure under Samagra Shiksha with the Union Ministry of Education as the main implementing agency at the national level.
At the State level, the project would be executed through the integrated State Implementation Society (SIS) for Samagra Shiksha.
The World Bank support under the STARS is primarily in the form of a results-based financing instrument called Program for Results (PforR). This would ensure major reforms at the State level through a set of disbursement-linked indicators (DLIs). A State Incentive Grant (SIG) would be used to encourage the States to meet desired outcomes. The SIG matrix has been aligned with the intermediate outcome indicators as per the requirement of PforR instrument. An independent verification agency (IVA) would verify each result before disbursement of funds.
The STARS project would be instrumental in the implementation of various recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020. This includes strengthening early childhood education and foundational learning, improving learning assessment system, ICT-enabled approaches in education, teachers development and vocational education, informed an official.
