Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit organisation working towards ensuring quality school education for all children in India. Since 2012, CSF has partnered with the government, the private sector, non-profit organisations, and other ecosystem stakeholders to improve the learning outcomes of children, especially from low-income communities. CSF is driven by its mission to enable the school education system to adopt solutions that are scalable, sustainable and effective so that all children get equal access to opportunities needed for leading a better life.
To learn more, please visit http://www.centralsquarefoundation.org/
Disclaimer: We have made every effort to ensure that the information provided in this report is correct and complete as of 3rd August, 2020. No part of this report should be considered an official position of the Government of India, respective state governments or their allied agencies and departments.
From the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to India’s plans to appear for PISA in 2022, this is a big moment for the country on the education front. The next few steps will be crucial for the learners of today and tomorrow ; research and evidence should inform the tools and metrics that will be used to improve the quality of education.
Based on emerging trends, available evidence, and recent policy developments, this report provides a holistic view of the school education system in India. We at CSF developed this report to fill the need of a one-stop source on school education that collates and analyses relevant resources. It aims to be a ready reckoner for policymakers, researchers, philanthropists and practitioners among other stakeholders associated with the sector.
We were working on this report when India went under lockdown to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Schools were no exception to the lockdown, and imparting education in these circumstances became a pressing concern. Everyone from the governments to parents turned to tech-enabled resources for continued learning — the crisis was a sputnik moment for EdTech. The report dives into the EdTech initiatives implemented at scale by some state governments which can be useful to assess how appropriate EdTech solutions can be deployed and integrated in schools in the long run.
The report also looks at how setting up of an independent regulatory body for assessment and accreditation of private schools, as suggested in the NEP 2020, can help create an enabling environment for these schools. After all, we will truly achieve our aspirations only if learning outcomes among students attending private schools improve too.
Today’s children will join the workforce in 2030, and to reap the benefits of the demographic dividend then, all stakeholders need to start working together to accomplish the common goal of improved student learning.
Mayank Bhushan
Pratibha Joshi
Sudhanshu Sharma
We are grateful to colleagues at the Central Square Foundation (CSF) for many insightful discussions. We would especially like to thank Bikkrama Daulet Singh, Shaveta Sharma Kukreja, Dr Jayshree Oza, and Praveen Khanghta for their advice and close engagement throughout the course of this report. Special thanks to Pallavi Jhingran for key inputs, and Tanvi Bhambry and Devika Grover, for excellent data support. We are thankful to Dhir Jhingran, Pranav Kothari, Steve Cantrell, and Shailendra Sharma for valuable inputs and suggestions. All errors are our own
For any queries, suggestions, comments or corrections, please write to us at csf.research@centralsquarefoundation.org