‘Convergence of efforts by Centre and states required to improve quality of education’

New Delhi: Convergence of efforts across the Centre, states and local bodies is needed to improve the quality of education, especially primary education, the Economic Survey said on Monday.

According to the survey for FY 2023-24 tabled in Parliament, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is expected to yield foundational literacy and numeracy for every child passing the third standard in the near future.

“As education is one of the most critical areas for India’s development, mission-mode and cost-effective implementation of well-designed and well-intentioned programmes is essential to improve the quality of education, especially primary education, without which further years of education add little value.

“To realise the same, unity of purpose and convergence of efforts across the centre, state, and local governments is called for, as ‘public education’ is a concurrent list subject,” the survey document said.

“This can include filling supervisory positions to monitor teaching quality, recognition of good and bad teacher performance, and hiring of local volunteers to ensure ‘teaching at the right level’ as textbook completion means little if children are way behind curricular standards,” the survey said.

According to the survey, the government’s spending on social services, including education, rose by 9.36 per cent to Rs 23.50 lakh crore in FY24 from Rs 21.49 lakh crore in FY23. Of the total, Rs 8.28 lakh crore was spent on education alone during FY24, around 8 per cent higher from Rs 7.68 lakh crore in FY23. The survey also noted that the rise in enrolment in higher education has been driven by underprivileged sections, such as SC, ST and OBC, with a faster growth in female enrolment

across sections.