The Indian government and the World Bank on Friday, January 29,  signed a $500 million Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Programme (STARS) to improve the quality and governance of school education in six states — Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan.

Some 250 million students (between the age of 6 and 17) in 1.5 million schools and over 10 million teachers will benefit from the programme. The STARS programme builds on the long partnership between India and the World Bank (since 1994), for strengthening public school education and to support the country’s goal of providing ‘Education for All’. Prior to STARS, the bank had provided a total assistance of more than $3 billion towards this goal.

“India’s National Education Policy 2020 envisages equitable and inclusive education for all. The STARS project will help carry this vision forward,” Additional Secretary, Economic Affairs, C.S. Mohapatra, said.

“It will strengthen early childhood education and foundational learning; facilitate school to work transition through vocational education; improve learning assessment mechanisms; and support teacher development. This will help in the economic and social progress of the country,” he added.

Kunal Kamra to SC: Jokes can’t make heavens fall

Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, who is facing contempt of court charges for his tweets against judges and judiciary, Friday, January 29,  told the Supreme Court that his “tweets were not published with intention of diminishing people’s faith in the highest court of our democracy” and that “the suggestion that my tweets could shake the foundations of the most powerful court in the world is an over-estimation of my abilities”.

In an affidavit filed in response to the notice issued by the top court, Kamra said “just as the Supreme Court values the faith the public places in it (and seeks to protect it by the exercise of its criminal contempt jurisdiction), it should also trust the public not to form its opinions of the Court on the basis of a few jokes on Twitter”. He added that “the public’s faith in the judiciary is founded on the institution’s own actions and not on any criticism or commentary about it”. Kamra said “growing culture of intolerance in this country, where taking offence is seen as a fundamental right and has been elevated to the status of a much-loved national indoor sport”.