Underachievers! Schools Fail Education Reform Test Despite Massive Spending Across Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Despite repeated claims of improving the quality of government education, a third-party assessment by the School Education Department has revealed poor performance by hundreds of government schools across Madhya Pradesh.

Many schools failed to meet basic academic and infrastructure benchmarks laid down under Central government education reforms and flagship schemes though crores of rupees have been spent on improving school education in the state.

Under the School Certification Programme 2025-26, conducted by ACER India across 47 districts, only 18 of 451 government schools secured gold certification, while 397 schools were placed in the bronze category. Only 36 schools obtained silver certification.

The assessment was conducted under the STARS programme, Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States, implemented by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL), Government of India. The programme aims to improve learning outcomes, school governance and infrastructure quality in government schools.

According to DSEL guidelines under schemes such as PM SHRI, Samagra Shiksha and UDISE+ norms, schools are expected to provide facilities including digital classrooms, libraries, science and computer laboratories, playgrounds, ramps for disabled students and safe infrastructure.

However, the certification outcome suggests that a majority of schools in the state failed to properly implement these centrally sponsored reforms at the ground level. Many schools continue to struggle with weak foundational learning, inadequate teaching standards and poor infrastructure despite years of funding under Central schemes.

Chhindwara, Khandwa among top performers

The district-wise list showed that Chhindwara and Khandwa emerged among the best-performing districts in the state. Khandwa recorded three gold-category schools, while Chhatarpur also performed comparatively better with multiple schools securing gold certification.

Major districts fail to secure gold

Several major districts failed to secure even a single school in the gold category and remained dependent on silver or bronze rankings. Districts including Bhopal, Dhar, Dewas, Agar Malwa, Burhanpur, Dindori, Damoh and Vidisha failed to achieve top certification.

Certification criteria

The certification criteria were not stringent. For gold certification, schools required more than 70% students to score above 60% marks in Hindi, environmental studies and mathematics, while over 50% students had to score above 50% in English.

However, a majority of schools failed to meet these benchmarks. For silver certification, more than 35% students in English (subject) and over 50% students in Hindi, environmental studies and mathematics were required to cross the benchmark scores.