Gandhinagar, Tuesday: Led by Mr. Jaime Saavedra, Global Education Director of World Bank, a high-
level delegation of the World Bank has come today from Washington to visit our state to study the radical
changes taking place in the field of school education in Gujarat. The delegation led by Mr. Jaime
Saavedra also paid courtesy visit to Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Bhupendra Patel here in Gandhinagar
today.
Mr. Jaime Saavedra has previously served as the Minister of Education in the South American country of
Peru and is currently World Bank’s Director of Global Education. ‘Mission schools of excellence’-Rs.
10,000 crore project that has resulted in astounding modification, while data driven initiatives taken via
command and control centre have acted captivating. Being inspired by CCC and transformation in
education field, Mr. Saavedra has come to study the Gujarat model and to declare it as a global best
practice.
We study what are the best practices across the world, which are the states and countries-doing the right
thing to support their students. What we see in Gujarat is the major change in mind set- at system level.
We often feel that if students are in school, they are learning but that’s not necessarily true. Here in
Gujarat, the education system focuses on learning, adapting fundamental skills to live a productive life-
which is exemplary said Mr. Jaime Saavedra, Global Education Director, World Bank.
The state government is always committed to improve the educational level of the state by implementing
new educational reforms in the field of education in Gujarat. A series of quality educational improvement
measures have been taken by the state government with the aim of ensuring not just schooling of every
child but even learning of every child.
Educational quality can be greatly improved if schools are made competitively and structurally superior
and the children get attractive school complex including educational facilities, physical facilities, smart
classrooms, stem labs, co-curricular activities.
It has been decided to conduct “Mission Schools of Excellence” in the next five years at an estimate cost
of Rs. 10,000 crore for the holistic development of children through quality education.
The Schools of Excellence project will benefit all 35,133 government schools and 5847 grant-in-aid
schools in the next five years. A total of approximately 41,000 government and grant-in-aid schools will
be benefited under the Mission Schools of Excellence. World class infrastructural facilities and
educational facilities will be provided to make 20,000 of these schools excellent.
The target is to build a total of 50,000 new classrooms in these schools in the next five years, provide
smart class facilities in 1,50,000 classrooms, 20,000 new computer labs, 5000 stem labs / tinkering labs
etc., which will directly benefit about 1 crore students in the state in the next five years.
The state’s most ambitious project has been funded by the international financial institutions World Bank
and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) at a cost of USD 1 billion i.e., Rs. 7,500 crore has been
sanctioned.
The World Bank’s largest ever funding in India for the Mission Schools of Excellence. Also, the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is doing this for the first time in the world in the field of education
with the Department of Education of Gujarat.
This is first of its kind project to ensure quality school education across the country. Over the next 5 to 6
years, the project will directly benefit more than one crore students in the state and will help in ensuring
quality education for the next generation.
Education Minister Shri Jitu Vaghani, State Education Minister Shri Kuberbhai Dindor, Lead Education
Specialist, India for the World Bank Group Shabnam Sinha, Secretary to Education Department Dr.
Vinod Rao, State Project Director- Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Ratankunvar Gadhvicharan and other officials
