Report Reforming Education in Delhi A revolutionary movement by AAP By Hridbijoy
towards education. But, the present Delhi government was formed by law- makers who are known for their radical activism. The Deputy Chief Minister, who is also the finance and education minister, had openly declared educa- tion as his top priority. It is quite un- usual for a finance minister to pay less attention towards revenue generation for education, but he didn’t accept the corrupt practices set by his predeces- sors; instead he decided to change the system itself. In February 2015 Delhi’s 1011 gov- ernment schools were marked by short- age of classrooms, insufficient number of teachers as no recruitments had been done for a decade, and most impor- tantly, low learning levels and high dropout rate among students. Fast for- ward to August 2016, and we see gov- ernment schools in Delhi getting better in terms of infrastructure, administra- tive reforms, curriculum and teachers. The increased budget has helped the government in addressing basic prob- lems, especially related to infrastruc- ture. 8000 classrooms were constructed, housekeeping staff for proper cleaning of school premises were employed, schools got connected to the water pipeline, and Estate Managers were de- ployed in every school to supervise the maintenance and upkeep of the school. Estate managers use an android app to report their findings which is regularly monitored through customized dash- boards by the officials and the deputy chief minister. Schools are improving not just because of the increased budget but more because of the commitment towards bringing a real change to the classrooms.
government and attended the 1st Mega PTM in their neighborhood schools. Parent Teacher Meeting in today’s world is taken for granted and it is as- sumed that monthly or bi-monthly PTMs are regularly held across all the schools. Unfortunately, that was not the case in Delhi. Most of the parents who had at- tended the mega PTM were satisfied with the government’s efforts in im- proving the schools. But, this change didn’t happen overnight. The Aaam Aadmi Party came to power with full majority in February 2015 and since then the government has been trying hard to push forward the agenda of re- forms which the party had promised to the people in the 70 point manifesto of 2015 assembly elections. The smile seen on parents’ faces after coming out of the Mega PTM is the result of right steps taken during the past one and a half year by the government. The first step taken by the Delhi government after coming to power caught the attention of many, as the fi- nance minister and education minister Manish Sisodia announced 106% in- crease in budget for education, making it 25% of the total state budget. This bold move was appreciated as it falls in line with our pre-set notions about budget dependent reforms. Empirically, public policy in India has not benefitted much from the increase in budget. Be- fore Delhi the two communist ruled states Kerela and West Bengal had also made similar efforts in reforming edu- cation. While Kerela succeeded, West Bengal failed miserably. At this stage the AAP leadership could have could have stopped the tiring process of re- forming Delhi’s education scenario, as they had already allocated more budget
July 30th, 2016 was a historic date for Delhi. I don’t blame you for not re- membering which leader’s birthday it was or forgetting about another ‘revo- lutionary’ scheme launched on that day. What happened on that day is historic because for the first time parents of chil- dren studying in government schools had entered the school premises and in- teracted with the teachers and princi- pals. Mother of a differently abled girl who comes to school on a wheelchair said “I have to come to the school gate every day to drop her off, but had never come inside before today." Thousands of parents responded to call of Delhi
Parents arriving for parent teacher meeting in Delhi, a first ever
Contʼd on page 32
24 indiaparentmagazine.org
Open House Special 2016
Made with FlippingBook Online document