Citing a report of Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) tiled 'Delhi Government Schools — A Factual Analysis', Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta said despite the claims of a paradigm shift in the education by the Delhi Government, the real scenario is rather dismal and point to the fact that beyond rhetoric not much has been achieved on ground.
Gupta highlighted dismal performance of Delhi government schools' students and presented the following statistics. He said that while the average pass percentage of X standard in Private schools of Delhi was 93.18 per cent in case of Delhi Government schools it was 71.58 per cent. It is also much below the national average of 91.10 per cent.
He also highlighted the fact that performance in grade XII and X in Delhi government schools has been dismal when we segment the scores and percentage of students under each. To put it in context, 75 per cent of the students scored below 60 per cent.
"The data reveals that 95 per cent of Class XII students from government schools are unable to get admission in Delhi University considering its average cut-off of 85.03 per cent in 3rd list of 2018. The number is way below the percentage of students in the top segment of 90-100 per cent which is 12.78 per cent.
Gupta also stressed on the fact that there are alarming vacancies in key teaching and non-teaching positions - a huge gap persists in the sanctioned and filled positions both among the teaching and non-teaching staff in Delhi government schools. To highlight some striking statistics, there is a whopping 70.5 per cent vacancies in case of principals at the same time there is a huge gap in teaching staff as almost 51 per cent of the posts of TGTs are vacant and not filled by regular staff which negatively the quality of teaching and student engagement.
"Kejriwal government had miserably failed on its promise of constructing 500 schools. He pointed out that even out of the 25 new schools constructed; work on all of these had already been initiated prior to 2015 i.e. before the AAP government came to power," he said.
Dr Sumeet Bhasin, Director of PPRC brought forth a very fundamental point that highlights the extent of lapses in the education system of Delhi. Providing key figures, he said that 71 per cent of the schools under Delhi government do not have Science stream i.e. out of 1,029 schools only 301 schools across Delhi have science as a subject.
Further, he also highlighted that Biology discipline is available in only 10 per cent of the schools making pre - medical education meaningless and weaning students from the prospects of making a career in medical stream, he said, adding that 73 per cent of the schools do not have vocational stream.
Dr Bhasin exclaimed that the claim of revolutionizing the education system of Delhi is completely inconsistent with ground realities. "Delhi's education system has faltered on two very significant aspects. While on one hand there has been a consistent rise in students dropping out between 2014 and 2018. 66 per cent of students in classes IX to XII of Delhi government schools who failed in 2017-18 are now missing in academic records, the fact that students are not being readmitted in the school, revealing a dangerous trend," he said.
He also pointed out a drastic fall of 8 per cent in the enrolment rates between 2013-14 and 2017-18.