Agreement for financial support to STARS project signed between Economic Affairs dept, World Bank
Jan 29, 2021
New Delhi [India], January 29 : An agreement was signed between the Department of Economic Affairs and World Bank along with the Ministry of Education for the financial support of the implementation of the Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) project by the Ministry of Education.
The total project cost of the STARS project is Rs 5,718 crore with the financial support of the World Bank amounting to USD 500 million (approximately Rs 3,700 crore) and the rest coming as State shares from the participating States, over a period of 5 years, read the release by the ministry.
The program envisions improving the overall monitoring and measurement activities in the Indian school education system through interventions in selected states through the integrated State Implementation Society (SIS) for Samagra Shiksha.
STARS project would be implemented as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme under Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education.
Earlier, Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of the STARS project on October 14, 2020.
The project covers 6 States viz Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Odisha. The identified States will be supported for various interventions for improving the quality of education.
The proposed World Bank support under STARS is primarily in the form of a results-based financing instrument called Program for Results which will ensure major reforms at the State level through a set of disbursement-linked indicators (DLIs), read the release.
A State Incentive Grant (SIG) will be used to encourage States to meet desired project outcomes. The SIG matrix has been aligned with the intermediate outcome indicators as per the requirement of the PforR instrument. An Independent Verification Agency (IVA) will verify each result before disbursement of funds.
