Atishi Marlena, the Education Adviser of the Delhi Government, speaks to Rahiba R Parveen underlining the initiatives of the AAP Government that have yielded good performance in the recently announced CBSE results of the Government schools across Delhi. While the fee in Government-run schools is nil till Class XII, the private schools charge heftily that goes up to Rs 4,000 per month for Class XII, yet the former has outperformed the latter.
Interview Excerpts:
How much credit would the AamAadmi Party (AAP) take for the excellent results in the CBSE Class XII of Government schools in DelhiIJ
The students have worked hard, teachers have worked hard and obviously there is no denying that there were the same teachers earlier too. A lot has changed with the same students, teachers and officers in the past two years. I think the change has come because you have a Government that has made education one of its main agendas. I think, that is where the main difference lies.
While, the result in Government schools has remained consistent, that’s 88 per cent yearly, the fact is that the CBSE results are reducing across the country, sometimes year on year comparison is not appropriate. For example, the CBSE’s national average result is 82 per cent, so according to that the Delhi Government schools are six per cent ahead of the national average. And mostly, the CBSE schools across the country are private schools and the Government schools follow State boards mainly. Delhi is the only place where Government schools follow CBSE, so the fact our schools are much ahead of national school average.
What preparations did you do to achieve good resultIJ Anything specificIJ
There are two to three things. One is the overall shift in the seriousness and it’s not as if the Government schools all over the country lack resources, they have reasonable infrastructure and well qualified teachers. Infact, probably better qualified teachers than private schools but there is no accountability in the system. There is no seriousness in the system. I think, that is one of the things that has changed in the past two years.
First, because you have a Government that is taking education much more seriously, so much more attention is being paid. So, you have far greater monitoring and accountability ranging from Minister himself going regularly to the schools because the Minister is doing a lot, the officers are going regularly to the schools.
At the third level, we have created the School Management Committees (SMCs). They consist largely of parents as well as some members of the local community. They have also been doing a lot of monitoring which means that school functioning as a whole has improved. Teachers are punctual, students are punctual and teachers are in classrooms.
How much have the SMCs been successfulIJ
It has been remarkably successful. I would go on saying that in Delhi we have probably some of the most active SMCs across the country. There members of the social work, parents have taken lead in ensuring that the system works. It is monitoring and accountability.
The second systemic step that has been taken is that two years ago, a lot of principals used to go in managing infrastructure and maintenance. The principals used to worry about fan repairing, corridors, sanitation. About a year ago, we have appointed estate managers. This did not exist in any Government school so we created a post where estate managers were appointed and these are retired Government personnel but largely retired Army personnel. They manage the entire maintenance of the school...get the cleaning done from the sanitation workers.
Most private schools do have caretakers and estate managers except that it didn’t really exist here so the principals can focus on academics and I think that is a big change.
Specifically, for Class XII, there is one or three things we did, there has been lot of focus on teacher training. As I said, things were non-serious, usually funds would get sanctioned, by the time they were allocated for teacher training, it would be January or february — which is the end of academic year. There is no point then to train them. We have been ensuring for the past two three years that the bulk of the teacher training happens in the summer holidays.
For example, this year in the summer holidays, we have trained about 35,000 teachers while last year 25, 000 teachers.
How did you go about chalking down the school performance wiseIJ Did you observe the results across the schools in terms of performance that demanded focusIJ
There are usually, more difficult schools in areas like Northeast Delhi, Mangolpuri, Ambedkar Nagar, Sultanpuri. One of the things, we have done in last few years is post the best principals in these areas. By difficult schools, we mean areas which are more crowded, low performing, slum localities, less literate, more prone to violence and drug abuse. Therefore, the areas which were considered to be punishment postings have been given to principals who have worked towards turning around things in schools.
Another thing to achieve better Class XII results, we took 50 schools and started “adopt a school” programme. Every officer in education department adopted one school which was a low performing school. They would regularly go to that school, mentor and give input to teachers.
What kind of training was provided during the months near to examsIJ
Before the exams, we had group of 200 mentor teachers who worked on teacher training.
In the last five months, instead of training the teachers — each mentor teacher works at five schools — they interacted with the students who were preparing for the CBSE examinations. They were motivating them, and giving tips on how to write their answers. It's not about knowing your subject, you also need to know how to write an exam. Even as something as simple that to not spend more time in a one or two mark question.
In your earlier interviews, you have said that we are in process of making a big reform in education. Can I ask, how far have you reached in achieving that levelIJ
We are half way through with our tenure. I think education reform is a slow process which takes at least seven to eight years. But I do think, by the time our term is over, a lot of people would seriously considering Government schools in terms of Government schools for their children. These days the Government school is an option for only someone who has no other choice and I think as the Government schools do well, they have a better result..372 students have cleared the JEE mains. I think, that would inspire confidence amongst people. People would begin to think about the fact that the Government schools are an option to send children.
What is the student teacher ratio right nowIJ
It varies. The problem in some areas like the Northeast Delhi was not the shortage of teachers but rooms. So, we have teacher but not rooms. Children would still have to sit in a hundred roll class rooms that’s is one of the things we are working on, to ensure there are enough rooms. I think, from July onwards we should have a teacher-student ratio of 40:1.
What are you planning next in educationIJ
There are two three things. We are starting five schools of excellence. They are a proof of concept that the Government schools can be as good as the best private schools.
What exactly would be the difference in these schoolsIJ
As of now, number one is that Government schools are only Hindi medium. There are not many extra-curricular activities.
How far has this plan reached in terms executionIJ
It’s all moved. For example, extra-curricular activities are something we piloted last year in about 50 schools. We are looking to expand it to all schools.
Are there any schools which you have chalked down, as you underlined earlier the difficult schoolsIJ
Definitely, there are about 100 to 150 schools. What are largely second shift boys schools. One of the things we are still looking at in terms of planning is to create enough infrastructure so that we don’t need second shift schools.
Where has the infrastructural reform reachedIJ
We have 8,000 classrooms more and 10,000 have been sanctioned recently. We are building 29 new school buildings. By the time we are done with this, we should be done with second shift schools. Hopefully, by the time, the tenure of our Government finishes, we will have given enough infrastructure for the next decade.