The Bihar government has announced a plan to rank schools in the state on specific countable parameters to enhance the quality of education and ensure overall students’ development. The endeavor would increase accountability in the state’s primary, middle, secondary, and higher secondary schools and standards.
The new ranking system would be conducted twice a year-November and March-said S Siddharth, Additional Chief Secretary (Education), in an order issued to the district education officers on Wednesday. The rankings would assess schools on key performance indicators like academic achievements, co-curricular activities, cleanliness, discipline, resource utilization, and grievance redressal.
The endeavor assumes significance at a time when Bihar was still among the worst five states in School Education Quality Index (SEQI) of 2019. SEQI is an index developed by Niti Aayog to measure educational outcomes across India’s states and Union Territories and supports data-driven policy interventions.
However, Siddharth said, the ranking system would run on a 100-point scale and be incorporated into annual review reports for teachers in an effort to increase accountability in the education sector. He said that only the best schools will be ranked and given star ratings. Those scoring between 85 and 100 points will be tagged Five Stars. Schools scoring between 75 and 84 will get Four Stars while those that will perform below will follow their respective category.
According to education department officials, the star ratings are aimed to inspire schools to deliver better performance results in an environment of healthy competition. “This initiative will make underperforming schools aspire to improve and encourage them to actively demand necessary resources from the government,” they explained.
Government schools in Bihar, which were once the bastion of so many of the nation’s top bureaucrats, have declined since the 1980s, when private schools sprouted up in their wake. The state’s education system is now in a renewal process, not only through school rankings to revive public education.
Read More: https://theknowledgereview.in/
