On the learning curve (Transforming education in India)

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

 On the learning curve (Transforming education in India)

---

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

• Most employee-intensive : Of all departments in state governments, the education department has the most. We have the teachers, officials and administrators.
• Bringing reforms : In such large systems, any attempt to bring reforms must start with aligning the incentives of all people, to ensure participation. Often, states fail in carrying out education reform programmes due to this fatal flaw.
• Haryana example : A successful programme has seen a race between administrative blocks to be declared "Saksham" (able), defined as 80% or more students who are grade level competent.
• What is the campaign :

1. Officials self-nominate their block for claiming the "Saksham" title. To do this, they have to be sure that the remedial programmes, teacher training and internal assessments have led to the 80% target already.
2. Third party assessment of claims is done.
3. If a block is found "Saksham", the CM recognises the officials.
4. When all blocks in a district are "Saksham", the district too is declared thus.

• 2019 status : In Haryana, 94 / 119 are declared Saksham and compared to 2014 when overall grade competence was just 40%, it is not 80%.
• Lesson learnt : If we induce competition among admin units, it invigorates all officials to work in tandem. Abstract goals like learning outcomes become more tangible in terms of metrics desired.
• NITI's push to competitive federalism : A new SEQI has been launched - School Education Quality Index. It seeks to make improvements in learning outcomes a focal point, and gives scores to States based on education performance.

1. SEQI uses 3 data sources, and 33 indicators
2. Largest weight is for outcomes, at 48%
3. Two types of performance measurement is done - well performing States (overall performance score), and Delta ranking (level of improvement).

• Aspirational Districts programme : The 2018 programme focusses on 112 under-served districts in India, made to compete to achieve targets in 5 sectors, with education having a 30% weight. Best practices of one district are shared with others. Improvements are visible now.
• Right incentives : Support from the top, aligning of incentives and improving of administrative efficiency can change the face of governance in India.
• Summary : By inducing properly incentivised competition amongst administrative units or districts, remarkable results can be achieved in a structured manner.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

Join UPSC Self Prep course | Online Course (PT Gurukul)  | Covid Special Course | Join PT courses

* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.