Key Educational Initiatives in India Supporting SDG 4

Quality education is the bedrock of a strong society, and it sits at the heart of the United Nations’ 2030 agenda as Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Over the years, India has rolled out a network of programmes that aim to ensure every child, regardless of background, gets a fair shot at learning. From integrated school education frameworks to targeted scholarships and flexible learning systems, these initiatives collectively push the country closer to the global promise of inclusive and equitable education for all.

How India is aligning its education policy with SDG 4 🔗

SDG 4 calls on countries to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030. To meet this mandate, India has layered its efforts across school access, gender equity, skill-building, and financial support for disadvantaged groups. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and a cluster of centrally sponsored schemes work in tandem to translate SDG 4 targets into classrooms, coaching centres, and community spaces.

What makes the Indian approach distinctive is its treatment of school education as a continuum, rather than as disconnected segments. A child’s journey, from the pre-primary years to senior secondary and beyond, is seen as a single pathway where each stage builds on the last. Let’s walk through the key initiatives powering this vision.

Samagra Shiksha: an integrated scheme for school education 🔗

Launched in 2018, Samagra Shiksha is arguably the most ambitious school-education programme in the country. It merged three earlier schemes, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, and Teacher Education, into one unified framework. The scheme treats school as a continuum from pre-school to senior secondary, aligning directly with the SDG 4 vision of equitable quality education.

The scale is staggering. Samagra Shiksha reaches over 1.16 million schools, more than 156 million students, and about 5.7 million teachers in government and aided institutions across the country. It supports the new 5+3+3+4 pedagogical and curricular structure recommended by NEP 2020, which reorganises schooling into foundational, preparatory, middle, and secondary stages.

Key focus areas under Samagra Shiksha 🔗

The scheme’s interventions are wide-ranging. According to guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education, major focus areas include universal access and infrastructure, foundational literacy and numeracy, gender and equity, inclusive education for children with special needs, digital initiatives, RTE entitlements such as uniforms and textbooks, vocational education, and sports. The scheme also supports teacher training through SCERTs and DIETs.

A notable feature is the integration of digital technologies into classrooms. Financial assistance is provided to states and UTs for ICT labs, smart classrooms, and digital boards. Operation Digital Board and the NIPUN Bharat programme, which targets foundational literacy and numeracy among children aged three to nine, both operate under this umbrella.

Samagra Shiksha is implemented as a centrally sponsored scheme with a 60:40 funding split between the Centre and most states, rising to 90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan states. This arrangement embeds cooperative federalism into the country’s education architecture.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao: educating and empowering the girl child 🔗

Gender equality is a pillar of SDG 4, and few initiatives tackle this as directly as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP). The scheme was launched on 22 January 2015 in Panipat, Haryana, to address the declining Child Sex Ratio and related issues of women’s empowerment. It is a tri-ministerial effort, jointly steered by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the Ministry of Education.

The scheme has two complementary goals: “Beti Bachao” (save the girl child), which focuses on ending gender-biased sex selection, and “Beti Padhao” (educate the girl child), which promotes girls’ enrolment, retention, and completion of quality education. In its first phase, BBBP targeted 100 districts with particularly low child sex ratios, combining enforcement of the PC & PNDT Act with awareness drives and community mobilisation.

A decade of progress and ongoing challenges 🔗

After ten years of implementation, the results tell a mixed but encouraging story. As per data shared by the government, the National Sex Ratio at Birth improved from 918 in FY15 to 930 in FY24, and the Gross Enrolment Ratio of girls in secondary schools rose from 75.51% to 78% over the same period. Initiatives such as Selfie With Daughter, Beti Janmotsav celebrations, and skill-development conferences like “Betiyan Bane Kushal” have helped shift cultural attitudes.

That said, independent reviews have flagged concerns. A parliamentary standing committee and the CAG have pointed out that a substantial share of funds was spent on publicity rather than on-ground education or health interventions, and some districts continued to see sex ratio declines during the scheme’s early years. This is a reminder that behavioural change takes time, steady funding, and community ownership.

National Institute of Open Schooling: flexibility as a design principle 🔗

For many learners, the traditional school calendar simply doesn’t fit. Working teenagers, rural students, school dropouts, adults wanting to complete their education, and children with disabilities all need alternatives. This is where the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) steps in.

NIOS was established in November 1989 as an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Education, following the recommendations of the National Policy on Education 1986. It provides academic courses at the secondary and senior secondary levels, Open Basic Education for younger learners, vocational courses, and life-enrichment programmes. Certificates issued by NIOS are recognised by the Association of Indian Universities, the UGC, and several state boards.

Why NIOS matters for SDG 4 🔗

The scale and reach of NIOS are enormous. It operates through five departments, 23 regional centres, and more than 7,400 study centres across India and abroad, with cumulative enrolment of over 4.13 million learners in the last five years, making it the largest open schooling system in the world.

The institute’s design reflects what SDG 4 calls “lifelong learning”. There is no upper age limit for admission, learners can choose their subjects, credits are transferable, and the On-Demand Examination System lets candidates appear for tests when they feel ready. Study materials are available in Hindi, English, Urdu, and several regional languages.

The vocational wing is especially relevant. NIOS vocational programmes aim to create skilled, middle-level human resources for organised and unorganised sectors of the economy, covering fields such as agriculture, IT, hospitality, health, and engineering. By weaving skills with academics, NIOS directly addresses SDG 4.4, which targets a substantial increase in the number of youth and adults with relevant skills for employment.

Pre-Matric scholarships for minority students 🔗

Dropout rates tend to spike in households where the cost of education, uniforms, books, and even transport, strains the family budget. The Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme run by the Ministry of Minority Affairs is designed to ease this pressure for students from notified minority communities: Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis), and Jains.

According to the scheme guidelines, pre-matric scholarships aim to encourage parents from minority communities to send their children to school, lighten their financial burden, and support school completion. The scholarship covers admission fees, tuition support, and maintenance allowance for students in Classes 1 to 10, studying in government or eligible private schools.

Eligibility and safeguards 🔗

To qualify, students typically need to have secured at least 50% marks in the previous final examination, and family income must fall below a prescribed ceiling. The scheme reserves around 30% of scholarships for girls to tackle the compounded disadvantage faced by girls from minority backgrounds. Disbursement is through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), which reduces leakage and ensures funds reach the intended recipient.

Because dropouts most commonly occur between Classes 8 and 10, a pre-matric nudge at the right moment can be the difference between a child continuing school or leaving to work. This is precisely the kind of targeted intervention SDG 4.5 envisions when it calls for eliminating disparities in education and ensuring equal access for the vulnerable.

Free coaching for economically backward students 🔗

Competitive exams, from the Civil Services to NEET, JEE, CAT, and CLAT, are gateways to upward mobility. But private coaching in metropolitan hubs like Delhi, Kota, and Hyderabad is expensive, putting it out of reach for many bright students from marginalised backgrounds. The Free Coaching Scheme, run by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, tries to level this playing field.

The scheme’s stated objective is to provide quality coaching to economically disadvantaged Scheduled Caste (SC) and Other Backward Class (OBC) candidates so they can succeed in competitive examinations and secure jobs in the public or private sector. From 2024-25 onwards, beneficiaries of the PM CARES for Children scheme have also been included.

What the scheme offers 🔗

The programme covers a broad range of exams: Group A and B central and state services, engineering and medical entrance tests like JEE and NEET, management exams like CAT, legal exams like CLAT, and eligibility tests such as SAT, GRE, GMAT, and TOEFL. Seats are distributed in a 70:30 ratio between SC and OBC candidates, with 60% of total slots allotted to courses whose qualifying exam is graduation and 40% to those where the qualifying exam is Class 12.

Empanelled coaching institutes receive the course fee directly, and selected candidates also get a monthly stipend, higher for outstation students than for local ones, to cover living expenses. Students with disabilities receive an additional special allowance. The annual family income ceiling is ₹8 lakh, which keeps the benefit focused on those who truly need it.

By investing in coaching, the government addresses a quiet but stubborn barrier: even students who perform well academically can struggle to crack highly competitive national exams without structured preparation. Removing that bottleneck expands the pipeline of SCs and OBCs entering civil services, prestigious professional colleges, and private sector leadership roles.

A layered strategy for inclusive education 🔗

Each of these initiatives addresses a different part of the education puzzle. Samagra Shiksha strengthens the foundation of schooling itself. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao tackles gender-based barriers that begin before a girl is even born. NIOS provides second chances and alternative paths for those who can’t access formal schooling. Pre-Matric scholarships keep minority students from slipping through the cracks during school years. And the Free Coaching Scheme opens doors to higher-stakes competitive opportunities for SC and OBC students.

Together, they form a layered strategy that takes SDG 4’s ambitious targets, from foundational literacy to equal access and lifelong learning, and translates them into practical, measurable action. Challenges certainly remain, including questions around funding efficiency, implementation gaps in remote districts, learning outcome disparities, and a continuing need for teacher quality improvements. But the architecture for an inclusive education system is clearly being built.

What do you think? Which of these initiatives, in your view, has the greatest potential to transform India’s education landscape over the next decade? And how can local communities, beyond government efforts, play a more active role in making SDG 4 a lived reality for every child?

References

1. https://samagra.education.gov.in/about.html
2. https://dsel.education.gov.in/en/scheme/samagra-shiksha
3. https://www.pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1776156
4. https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/government_tr_rec/beti-bachao-beti-padhao-caring-for-the-girl-child/
5. https://www.ibef.org/government-schemes/beti-bachao-beti-padhao
6. https://nios.ac.in/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_of_Open_Schooling
8. https://www.nios.ac.in/departmentsunits/vocational-education.aspx
9. https://www.indiascienceandtechnology.gov.in/nurturing-minds/scholarships/school/pre-matric-scholarship-scheme-minorities
10. https://socialjustice.gov.in/schemes/91
11. https://grants-msje.gov.in/fccguidelines