Independently Inspect Every School and Publish the Results

Setting minimum standards for schools is not enough. Someone must independently verify whether those standards are actually being met.

Government education departments can face an inherent conflict when they are responsible both for operating government schools and evaluating their quality. Inspections can also become focused on paperwork and administrative compliance rather than what matters to students: whether teachers are present and teaching effectively, facilities are safe and functional, children are learning, and problems are being corrected.

India already has experience with school evaluation through initiatives such as Shaala Siddhi, which developed frameworks for school self-evaluation, external evaluation and evidence-based school improvement. NEP 2020 goes further by proposing State School Standards Authorities and transparent public disclosure of regulatory information.

The opportunity is to turn these principles into a credible independent inspection system covering every government and private school.

Every state should have an independent School Standards and Inspection Authority, institutionally separated from the departments and organizations that directly operate government schools.

A common national inspection framework should establish the core standards, while states should retain flexibility to address local conditions.
Inspections should examine the things that determine whether children are receiving a good education: student safety, functional infrastructure, teacher availability and qualifications, classroom teaching, foundational learning, curriculum delivery, attendance, inclusion, school leadership, student support and compliance with minimum standards.

Inspectors should not judge schools solely from documents. They should visit classrooms, inspect facilities, speak with teachers and students, review learning evidence and verify whether reported information reflects actual conditions.

Parent and student feedback should form part of the evidence, while safeguards should prevent individual children or teachers from being publicly identified.
Each school should receive a simple public report showing:

Meets Standard → Improvement Required → Critical Deficiencies

The report should explain both strengths and specific problems rather than reducing the entire school to a single score.

Most importantly, inspection must lead to improvement.

A school with deficiencies should receive a time-bound improvement plan identifying what must be corrected, who is responsible, what resources are required and when the school will be reinspected.

For government schools, authorities should be responsible for providing necessary resources and correcting systemic problems such as teacher vacancies or inadequate infrastructure. Private schools should similarly be required to correct deficiencies within defined timelines.

Persistent or serious failures should trigger progressively stronger intervention.

The accountability cycle should be:

Set standards → Independently inspect → Publish findings → Correct deficiencies → Reinspect → Escalate if problems persist

Inspection frequency can also become risk-based. Schools consistently meeting standards may require less frequent full inspections, allowing inspectors to concentrate resources on schools where students face greater risks.

England provides a useful example through Ofsted.

Ofsted operates separately from the organizations running individual schools and inspects state-funded schools under a common national Education Inspection Framework. The framework is intended to create consistency in how educational institutions are evaluated.

Importantly, inspection results are public. Parents can search for individual schools and read their inspection reports.

England has also moved away from relying only on a single headline judgment. Since November 2025, Ofsted uses report cards intended to provide parents with a more detailed picture of what a school is doing well and where improvement is required.

India does not need to copy Ofsted exactly. It already has the foundations through Shaala Siddhi, NEP 2020 and the proposed State School Standards Authorities. The reform is to connect standards, independent verification, public reporting and corrective action into one functioning accountability system.

Standards → Independent inspection → Public transparency → Improvement plan → Reinspection → Accountability

The purpose of inspection should not be to punish schools or produce more paperwork.

It should be to find problems that are hurting children’s education—and make sure someone is responsible for fixing them.