Narendra Modi government is reportedly working on plans to rank the states based on their performance in education sector i.e. from results of learning to quality of school infrastructure.
The move is intended to instill a competitive spirit among the states and encourage them to improve quality of education that their students receive, according to government officials.
The other measures to be considered while according ranking to respective school will include — how well schools are using their resources, the innovative projects undertaken by their educational institutions and research outcomes.
NITI Aayog, the central government’s policy think tank , in collaboration with the HRD ministry, is working on the index the states will be ranked on.
The index is likely to be launched in a couple of months.
“The Niti Aayog and the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) are very interested in such an index,” a media report quoted one of the experts consulted by NITI Aayog as saying.
Earlier this month, NITI Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant indicated such rankings are in the works.
Speaking during an event in the national capital, Kant said the quality of education needs to be improved. “We are focusing on learning outcomes.”
“We are going to make states compete on the quality of education and learning outcomes.”
He said the government had consulted several top educationists across the world.
Stating that the central government intended to support the states, he said, however, it wasn’t clear what the support would entail and if it would cause changes in the funding mechanism for education.
It may be noted India has one of world’s largest education systems with nearly 330 million students in schools and colleges. The country has over 1.4 million schools, nearly 45,000 colleges and around 720 universities.
Several studies have shown the quality of education remains a challenge from the primary to territory level.
As a premier think-tank of the government of India, the NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) provides critical knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurial support to the country.
