This year because of the genuine efforts made by the govern- ment and Indus Action, more than 36,000 children from Eco- nomically Weaker Section (EWS) got admission in private schools as the process was made transparent by using online system. While the government has been trying its best to good for the children of Delhi, it has faced political resistance from the central government. Last year the Delhi legislative assembly amended the Delhi School Education Act & Rules 1973, after 32 years and also introduced a bill to check fee hike in private schools, but both have not been approved by the central government. The Delhi government had plans to build new schools but the Delhi Development Authority, which is controlled by the Ministry of Urban Development, Govt. of India has not sanctioned any land. The government wanted to improve the quality of mid-day meal provided, but the lieutenant governor of Delhi refused to sanction land for building a state of the art kitchen. Among all these issues the recruitment of teachers is more important but in this case also administrative hurdles are being created for the Delhi government. The greatest achievement of Delhi government could be understood when you travel in a three wheeler and the driver tells you about what is happening in the schools of Delhi. School education has never been an interesting for the people but because of the rapid changes in Delhi, it has be- come a hot topic of public discourse. The government will keep on improving the system but it would require constant scrutiny and support from the citizens and the civil society.
simple 3 digits by 1 digit division In response to this chal- lenge the government recently launched an ambitious pro- gram “Chunauti 2018 or Challenge 2018”. This program aims to reduce the dropout rate by taking special measures for each student so that no one is abandoned by the system. Stu- dents from class 6th to 9th were organized into two groups Nishtha and Pratibha. Nishtha will focus on building read- ing, writing and basic Maths competency and those in Prat- ibha will carry on with their regular syllabus. These groups are formed according to the learning level of the children, as teachers freedom won’t be affected by the syllabus. This would help the teacher is addressing the needs of children. Also children will learn better as they will be the appropriate group in which they can study at their own pace. In addition to these two groups, Vishwas was formed for the students who could not pass class 9th exams. Supplementary text- books for the Nishtha group are prepared by government school teachers with the help of Pratham as regular textbooks are not useful in dealing with this issue. Government is also introducing new tech based inter- ventions such as the CCTV project, which is being run as a pilot in some schools. J-PAL, a premier research network, is supporting this project by studying the results to enforce mechanisms to improve teaching practices. The MIS system of Directorate of Education has also been updated recently to take better decisions based on data analysis. The govern- ment has recently announced Change Makers in Education Fellowship to get highly motivated young professionals to work with the government. These fellows will not only help the teachers but will support various other initiatives as well.
Delhi School teachers being trained at University of Cambridge
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Open House Special 2016
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