Opinion In Delhi, a new classroom
Dear Krishna Kumar, the AAP has unleashed a silent revolution in education.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
I was disappointed by Krishna Kumar’s article ‘Blind faith’ (The Indian Express, April 23), not because he was critical of the efforts made by the AAP government but because of his tone. Kumar is a celebrated educationist but even the best are human and, sadly, he proved to be so when he sermonised that the AAP government’s initiatives are “desperation to show that something is being done “.
Kumar has based his article on two facts he has picked up from newspapers. He thinks the installation of CCTV in classrooms and sending principals and teachers to Oxford is a tokenism that will lead nowhere. I can’t agree with him more when he writes the Indian education system is in a mess, especially government schools and colleges. Indian education is reflective of the caste system and is discriminatory in nature. There’s an urgent need to make it egalitarian. The gap between government and private schools is huge and it creates a gulf that puts children from poor backgrounds in a permanently disadvantageous situation. It’s with this understanding that the AAP had promised a systemic overhaul. This requires changes at the physical level and also at the cognitive level.
In the last one year, major efforts have been made to improve the quality of school infrastructure. Government schools were in a shambles. The AAP started from scratch. It was decided to invest heavily in infrastructure development. Delhi’s is probably the only government which has increased the education budget by 106 per cent, the highest ever, which is 23 per cent of the total budget. Almost 8,000 new classrooms and 21 new schools will be ready by July 2016. New schools inaugurated recently can compete with any private school building. If Krishna Kumar has the time, he should see for himself.
Winston Churchill said, “Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which prime ministers have never yet been invested.” The principal is the pivot of the education system and no reform is possible without reforming the institution of the principal. The AAP didn’t go by the advice of armchair experts but decided to interact directly with principals. It was seen that 70 per cent of a principal’s time is consumed by non-teaching activities. It was decided the would be de-linked. Estate managers were appointed to look after non-teaching activities and assets. These managers would be appointed by the principal and report to him directly. Now a principal can devote his/her entire time to improving the quality of teaching.
Kumar has also raised the issue of the principal’s autonomy and very profoundly stated that principals “can’t select the cushion of her chair”. Let me inform you that now they can select the chair and cushion too. They can appoint their own ministerial staff and have been given financial powers of up to Rs 50,000. They rarely have to visit education officers. Another major impediment has been the teacher-student ratio. Ideally, it should be 1: 40. But in Delhi government schools, it crosses 1:100. So 5,000 new teachers have been appointed and 9,000 new vacancies have been created to bring down the teacher student ratio.
But this is not enough. Principals/ teachers cannot contribute more if they are not updated with the latest techniques. So a training programme was designed to make “education leaders” of them. Contacts were established with foreign universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Howard and Singapore. Kumar ignored the fact that Indians institutes like IIM Ahemdabad and Lucknow were also roped in. If 300 teachers have been sent to Oxford and Cambridge, 200 to Singapore, then 500 teachers availed the IIMs. Training programmes with foreign universities were designed after inviting them to visit Indian schools and conditions.
The curriculum is the most important part of education. The NCERT has designed books that are scholarly, but their compatibility with students is an important issue that needed new assessment and was found wanting. It was decided the curriculum would be designed in a way students could understand easily. Also, the curriculum was found to be too much. So it was decided to cut it by 25 per cent, which generated a minor controversy.
This entire exercise was put into effect after a very rewarding experience from these experiments in 54 model schools. Education should have been the first priority after Independence and Kumar’s generation can’t escape responsibility. The AAP has unleashed a silent revolution whose fruits will be seen after a few years.
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