WB chief Banga, US Treasury Secretary Yellen hail Gujarat’s education ‘control and command centre’

Gandhinagar, Jul 16 (PTI) World Bank President Ajay Banga on Sunday said there is a need to replicate the ‘Control and Command Centre’, also called ‘Vidya Samiksha Kendra’, in Gandhinagar in Gujarat in not just other parts of the country but also the world as a model of leadership.

Banga along with the United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen visited the centre, which gathers and analyses academic and administrative data of 11.5 million students, nearly half a million teachers, and 50,000 schools across Gujarat.

Secretary Yellen said the focus on education is core to break the cycle of poverty and to foster sustainable development, adding that the centre “points to the best of what the World Bank and other development partners can deliver from smartly designed projects with tangible outcomes and spur further innovations”.

“The best way to be effective is to take a good idea that works and replicate it. I am very keen that ideas like this are taken across the country, and of course that requires the country to work with us. But I am also keen to take it outside the country and show this as a model of leadership elsewhere,” Banga told reporters.

Banga said the centre can be highlighted as an example of how to make development happen with a country with a large young population.

India has more young people than any other country and they would its demographic dividend if they get good education, health care, air, and water, Banga asserted.

Banga said he will be visiting New Delhi in a few days and will tell Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their meeting that he thinks this control and command centre is a great idea that can be put in other places in India and abroad.

Addressing a joint press conference, Yellen said the success of this programme has spurred the government to replicate it in other states.

Both the leaders understood the functioning of the centre and interacted with the staff, beneficiary students and parents as well as teachers. They took questions from the children, many of whom wanted to know about the dignitaries’ childhood, likes and dislikes etc.

The ‘Vidya Samiksha Kendra’ project has been hailed by the Union government for boosting attendance, decongesting schools, and improving student-teacher ratios.

The Union government plans to replicate the success of the project, which is co-financed by partners including the World Bank and the Gujarat government, in other states.