Aheli Moitra
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in Delhi in February 2015; it pledged to bring positive changes in the sectors of education and health. The Party delivered accordingly.
According to the AAP, at the time it took office, the public education sector in Delhi was found to be in shambles, plagued not just by neglect but also actively subverted to benefit the private school mafia. The AAP government allocated 22.8% of its budget in 2016-17 to education when the all India average expenditure on education stood at 15.6% of the total budget.
The AAP translated this budgetary allocation to action. By April 2017, the Delhi government had constructed 8,000 new classrooms and 21 new schools since it came to power. Fibre benches, digital classrooms, proper toilets, state-of-the-art sports facilities, trainings, workshops and leadership development for teachers, a Happiness curriculum and democratically elected School Management Committees are some common features of more than 1000 government-run schools in Delhi today. Education has gained a wholesome dimension with learning a collective effort of the government, teachers, students and parents.
The results are apparent. Earlier this year, students of CBSE Class XII in Delhi's government schools outperformed their private school counterparts for the fourth consecutive year. 203 schools secured 100% pass percentage and 732 schools secured more than 90% results. The pass percentage stood at 94.24%.
But Class 10 students brought dismal results with a mere 69.32% pass percentage in Delhi government schools. Though board exams were conducted this year after a decade-long gap, the AAP government got down to business and zeroed in on the reasons for the deficit: the No Detention Policy; years of accumulated learning deficit; pressure on the teachers to complete the syllabi leading to inability to bring weaker children to the desired level; and huge variances in basic skills like reading and writing within a single classroom. They redirected focus from Class 10 to classes 6 to 10.
In its excitement to bring change though, it has brought in a new, quite ridiculous, policy to install CCTV cameras in all classrooms and other common spaces of government schools. The CCTV camera footage has been linked to an app that parents, in this case members of the working class, can download to watch their wards all day; as though being watched round the clock will automatically bring better grades.
Nonetheless, compare all of this to the discourse on school education in Nagaland. Textbooks do not reach students on time nor do school uniforms. Mid-day meals flounder on delivery. Private and mission-run schools take a bulk of the load of education. Poor people with access only to government-run schools have access only to poor or, at best, ad-hoc quality of education. Government teachers regularly employ proxies to teach on their behalf. The list is long but, as the Delhi government has shown, a few ideas and effective implementation can turn the tide for the future generation if only the government is willing.
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