Education Dilemma Persists in the Schools of Delhi
Education Dilemma Persists in the Schools of Delhi
If Swimming Pools Can Educate Students, Why Do We Need Schools in Delhi?
As there is no accountability for teachers, bureaucrats, and politicians who are working in a free-wheeling manner to waste huge public money, the education standard of Delhi schools continues to be in the doldrums.
By Rakesh Raman
Problems in the Current Education System in Delhi Schools
- No relationship between education and employability of students
- Incompetent teachers who do not understand the evolving pedagogy
- Careless and ignorant bureaucrats in the education department
- Exaggerated hype by naive politicians with a focus on votes
- No Return on Investment (RoI) analysis for expenditure on education
- No method to assess the quality of education
Effects of Poor Education Quality in Schools
- Spoiling the lives and careers of millions of children
- Increasing joblessness resulting in social unrest
- Increasing crimes in schools as well as the city
- Increasing drug addiction among students
- Wastage of huge public money
- Creation of dependent, idle society which survives only on government doles
Suggested Steps to Save Education in Delhi Schools
- Termination of the services of most government school teachers
- Termination of the services of bureaucrats who are responsible for education plight
- Teachers must sign Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure education quality
- Prosecution of teachers who take government salaries but promote private tuitions
- No budget should be allocated for school infrastructure such as buildings, etc.
- Expenditure should only be on making new curriculums, appointment of good teachers, and content quality of books
- Education in each class must target a particular type of job
- Extreme restrictions should be put on politicians who are making false claims
- Constitution of an independent core committee of external experts to oversee and ensure the quality of education
The author of this research report – Rakesh Raman – runs a free school single-handedly (without any support) to provide modern education to deserving children in a poor colony of Delhi. He has interacted with hundreds of students and parents to understand the current education system in Delhi schools.
Under his NGO RMN Foundation, he is running multiple field campaigns and educational outreach programs with the help of student volunteers who study at RMN Foundation school. He has recently released a research report: “Fault Lines: A Research Report on the Quality of Education in Delhi Schools.”
He also has written academic as well as supplementary education books to provide modern education to children. He has developed a “Constructive Education Framework” for school students to help them compete in the modern knowledge-driven world.
Earlier, he was associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert.
Politicians are supposed to be liars and knuckleheads; and they are. Arvind Kejriwal – who is a politician and chief minister of Delhi – is giving an impression that the swimming pools which he had opened will help improve education standards in schools.
[ Can Classrooms Improve Quality of School Education in Delhi? ]
Kejriwal had inaugurated 2 new swimming pools in 2 different government schools of the Directorate of Education in Trans Yamuna Area of Delhi. According to an official statement, both the swimming pools have been constructed by Public Works Department at a cost of Rs. 2.28 crore each.
The statement added that Kejriwal appreciated the efforts of the teachers and support staff in improving the standards of education in schools.
The Education Minister, Manish Sisodia, stated that Delhi Government is always committed towards providing the best infrastructure for school students, including classrooms, libraries, sports playgrounds, and so on. But what about education?
Education Dilemma
Both these naive politicians – Kejriwal and Sisodia – fail to understand that the sand-and-cement infrastructure that they are constructing in schools cannot help improve the quality of education which is going from bad to worse in Delhi’s schools.
In fact, Manish Sisodia, who often makes false claims about the quality of education in Delhi schools, has admitted that the students even in higher classes of schools cannot read their books.
He had announced the launch of “Mission Buniyaad” for improving reading levels of children studying in Delhi government schools as well as municipal schools.
Announcing the program, Sisodia referred to the National Achievement Survey (NAS) which has shown that the entire country, including Delhi, has a crisis of learning in schools. The NAS survey reveals that about half of all children in schools are not able to read their grade level textbooks.
Meanwhile, RMN Foundation – which is a humanitarian organization working extensively in the education sector – has started a new campaign which aims to get the education system in Delhi government schools revamped. You can click the following link to know the details of the campaign and participate in it.
[ दिल्ली के स्कूलों में शिक्षा का गिरता हुआ स्तर और उसमें सुधार का प्रयास ]
The enormous construction that is happening in the form of building classrooms, swimming pools, etc. will only lead to more corruption as construction projects consume huge money which can be easily swindled by bureaucrats and politicians.
And this is an open secret now that corruption has increased manifold during the past three years of Kejriwal’s government in Delhi.
Among other corruption cases, now Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are in the eye of the storm for a massive scam in Delhi Government. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India – the top auditor of government accounts – has reported financial misappropriation worth crores of rupees including a multi-crore rupees ration scam in Delhi.
The office of the Lt. Governor (LG) of Delhi must ensure that this corruption should not seep into Delhi’s education sphere. In order to save public money, the LG office should put in the public domain the details of each and every penny that is being spent on education.
In the Delhi Budget 2018, Kejriwal government has allocated Rs. 13,997 crore or 26% of the total outlay of Rs. 53,000 crore for the education sector. But it is expected that for obvious reasons a major part of this money will be spent on construction projects in schools, because such projects are highly lucrative for bureaucrats and politicians.
Instead of wasting money on building infrastructure, the focus should only be on improving the basic education system including the curriculums, appointment of good teachers, content quality of books, and so on. For this, the government does not need even a fraction of the money that it has allocated in the budget.
In order to focus just on the quality of school education, the politicians should stop telling lies to Delhi voters that they have improved the quality of education in schools. Current fact: The education standard is in the doldrums.
Recommendations from the RMN Foundation Campaign
- Delhi Government should create new syllabuses for different subjects keeping in view the contemporary job market requirements.
- New books should be developed based on the new syllabuses. Besides covering subjects, these books should also include pedagogical instructions for teachers.
- Delhi Government should immediately launch a new “teacher eligibility program” in order to assess the employed teachers’ suitability in the modern education ecosystem.
- Teachers should be asked to appear in a properly designed test covering different subjects. Only those teachers should be retained who clear the test comprehensively. The services of failed teachers must be terminated.
- The salary of new teachers should be based on the performance of their students in the class and in the job market.
- The services of teachers who ask students to attend private tuitions must be terminated.
- Delhi Government should create a special cell to handle each and every complaint from students or parents. Depending on the complaint, the services of teachers must be suspended before initiating legal proceedings against them.
- Retired teachers – most of whom are clueless about the modern education systems – should never be appointed as teachers.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications on different subjects.
About Rakesh Raman
Rakesh Raman is a government’s National award-winning journalist and social activist. Besides working at senior editorial positions with India’s leading media companies, he had been writing an edit-page column for The Financial Express, a business newspaper of the Indian Express group.
Nowadays, for the past about 7 years, he has been running his own global news services on different subjects. He also has formed an environment-protection group called Green Group in Delhi. He has created a comprehensive online information service to educate the Indian voters for the Lok Sabha election of 2019.
He is also running an exclusive community-driven online editorial section under the banner “Clean House” to help the suffering residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice in group housing societies where millions of people live.
Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development.
Rakesh Raman’s Work for Children’s Education
Rakesh Raman has written innovative storybooks to educate children in the high-tech area of information and communications technology (ICT) or computers through interesting stories. He also has written a “Multiple Subject Guide for Primary Learning” which teaches different subjects to children who study at the primary level.
He also runs RMN Kids, which is an edutainment (education and entertainment) website for children, their parents, and teachers. It is a global online content property covering diverse topics of contemporary relevance for children of all age groups. He has developed a “Constructive Education Framework” for school students to help them compete in the modern knowledge-driven world.
He has formed a free Education and Career Counselling Center for deserving children at a poor J.J. Colony in Dwarka, New Delhi under his NGO – RMN Foundation.
Contact
Rakesh Raman
463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4
Dwarka, Phase I, New Delhi 110 078, INDIA
You may please contact me on my email.
