Context:

• The NITI Aayog signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) to codify, document and share best practices to improve learning outcomes in public school education through systemic reforms, based on their collective experiences of working with various state governments in India.

Important Features:

• Under the agreement, NITI Aayog and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation will document the reforms pursued by various state governments that have initiated systemic reforms in education and have begun to see improved learning outcomes over the past few years.  A joint team comprising state leaders, consultants, research agencies and educators shall work together to develop a ‘theory of change’ based on the learnings from the states and will document the impact on ground by commissioning third-party studies to evaluate the impact of systemic reforms in education.
• Improving learning outcomes at scale will require a coordinated and simultaneous effort with both academic and governance reforms. The key findings of the exercise will then be disseminated to relevant decision-makers and policymakers in other states after a consultative process of validating the same. This will be done through workshops and publications in the coming months.