The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday approved a $500 million loan to the Government of India to help improve the quality of the country’s school education and mitigate the impact of the Covid-19) pandemic on students’ learning.

“The loan supports the Integrated Scheme for School Education (Samagra Shiksha) and the new Exemplar School Initiative of the Ministry of Education (MOE) to improve education quality by focussing on inclusive and equitable learning outcomes,” said a ADB statement.

Exemplar schools

About 1,800 government schools will be transformed into exemplar schools in Assam, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand. Exemplar schools will demonstrate quality learning environments and effective learning, which will become a model for replication in other government schools across the country.

“ADB’s assistance will support the government’s commitment to providing high-quality education to all by accelerating quality education initiatives across the participating States,” said Sunhwa Lee, ADB Principal Social Sector Specialist for South Asia. The loan will help scale up foundational learning for primary students and enhance the relevance of secondary education by introducing science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM) and integrated vocational education.

The learning interventions will be implemented across a larger set of cluster-level schools in the five States.

Professional development

It will also provide professional development for teachers and principals to enhance their pedagogic skills, subject knowledge, and digital skills.

The programme mainstreams digital technologies in teaching–learning practices and expands local digital contents based on lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic.

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