The NCPCR report exposed AAP's Delhi education model
05 Sep 2022 13:25:54
New Delhi, Sept 5: Education in schools is now the prime battling point between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). In fact, the AAP has made health and education, or rather the ‘Delhi Model or Schools’, its flagship program and part of its electoral slogan in the state elections, the latest being in Gujarat. However, a recent report by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) shows that not everything is fine as far as Delhi schools run by the state government are concerned.
The NCPCR has prepared a report based on its own findings and with inputs from the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 for Class 8 conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The NCPCR had received a complaint regarding the Desh Ke Mentor program introduced by the Government of NCT of Delhi, alleging that as per the scheme, children and unknown people are brought together for the purpose of education and career guidance. This may expose children to probable safety and security risks. A team of NCPCR officials led by the Chairperson then visited the government schools in Delhi and found a host of issues. Besides discrepancies with respect to the infrastructure and other aspects of the functioning, it was also highlighted that posts of Principal/Head Master are vacant in schools. Moreover, as per data available on UDISE+ Dashboard for 2020-21, there are a total of 1,027 schools under the Department of Education, of which only 203 schools have a Headmaster/acting Headmaster/Principal (nine schools have a Headmaster, three schools have acting Headmaster and 191 schools have Principal). The RTE Act, 2009 stated there shall be a full-time teacher outlining Classes 6 to 8, where admission of children is above 100. The National Achievement Survey (NAS) is administered in schools to students of Classes 3, 5, 8, and 9. As per this report, Delhi has scored below the national average for subjects namely maths, science, and social science. The Delhi government schools have done well only in language, the report states. In maths, for example, the better-performing states are Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Bihar, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab.
In science, schools in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan have done much better than in Delhi. In social science again, schools in Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Assam have fared much better than the students of Delhi schools, as per the NAS report.