In order to enhance the performance level of the public schools, the Department of Education (DoE) has initiated a categorisation process. Based on their overall performance so far and after thorough evaluation of their physical facilities, skills of the teachers, and transparency level, the schools will be categorised as A, B and C Class schools. Already some 40,000 public primary schools have filled the ‘school accreditation form,’ a kind of self-evaluation form, provided by the DoE. But the project expects to cover 10,000 more schools by the end of the next fiscal year. Most importantly, the government will henceforth disburse block, conditional and incentive grants strictly based on the proposed categorisation. The schools that fall under A and B category will undoubtedly receive more incentives.

Certainly, such a system will help improve the performances of the public schools. It will compel school authorities to compete in order to be eligible to receive government grants. This is also a prudent way of checking whether the funds these schools received in the past have been utilised properly or not. However, the new categorisation technique should be designed and implemented in such a manner that would actually prove effective enough to motivate the schools to do much better in the future. But the new idea should not benefit only a few schools. In other words, while providing incentives to the better ones, the system should also focus on improving the standards of low category schools. But the whole process should be transparent and seen to be just.