State education sector gets World Bank fund boost

Amaravati: The Government of India, Government of Andhra Pradesh and the World Bank on November 18 signed the legal agreements for US 250 million dollar for a project which aims to improve quality of learning for over 50 lakh students in Andhra Pradesh.

Students from all grades and stages of school education will benefit from the project. The beneficiaries are about 40 lakh students (between the age of six and 14) in over 45,000 government schools, and over 10 lakh children (between the age of three and six) enrolled in anganwadis (Integrated Child Development Centres), and about 1,90,000 teachers, and more than 50,000 Anganwadi workers.

This gives a big boost to the efforts of the state government to improve the quality of education in the government schools by establishing and strengthening foundation schools which is in tune with the National Education Policy, 2020. Andhra Pradesh aims to become the first state to do so according to the education minister Audimulapu Suresh.

Implementation of Supporting Andhra's Learning Transformation (SALT) programme that aimed at improving learning outcomes, quality of teaching practices and school management in basic education by transforming government schools into vibrant and competitive institutions would become easier now.

The then chief secretary Aditya Nath Das had received an official communication in this regard from Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Country Director for the World Bank in India. The state is implementing initiatives like Mana Badi Nadu-Nedu, as part of which the infrastructure facilities in government schools across the state are being given a facelift.

Curriculum reforms, improved classroom practices, professional development of teachers and preparing students to be globally competitive by introducing English as a medium of instruction in the state-run educational institutions are other thrust areas.