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.