School education: Delhi
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Schools
Performance of schools, 2011-16
The Times of India, December 16, 2016
Schools battle mass failure in Class IX, XI
In its first annual report on public school education in Delhi, the Praja Foundation says what the Delhi government has long acknowledged and has been working on--there's mass failure in Class IX.
The report, released by the NGO, also signals other concerns in all classes--high levels of absenteeism (especially in municipal schools), drop in enrolment figures at primary level despite the Right to Education Act, and the presence of shadow education in the form of private coaching.
According to the report, while all corporation and state government schools have witnessed a high dropout rate in 2014-15 and 2015-16, the east corporation tops the list at 16.3% and 17.7%, respectively. The figure for government schools is 2.9% and 3.1%. The rate of absenteeism is very high in municipal schools. In some districts and subjects, nearly one-fifth of a class was absent at least for a month during a school year.
“The drop in enrolment figures could be due to the linkage with Aadhaar, which has eliminated a lot of duplication. Earlier, children would leave and enrol elsewhere,“ said Saumya Gupta, director, education. Some of the attrition in lower classes, she said, could also be due to efforts to implement the 25% quota for EWS and disadvantaged children.
Explaining the highest dropout rate, Jitender Chaudhary , standing committee chairman of the east corporation, said, “Parents want to send their children to English-medium schools but we don't have many . Many students also come from EWS section and these kids often have to work to stabilise their family's income. We will take steps to fix it.“
The report stated that from 2011 to 2013, government school students performed slightly better than their private school counterparts.“However, in the past three years, they are gradually falling behind.“ The Class X pass percentage in 2015-16 was 95.43% in private schools, while it was 89.25% in the state schools. The report also raised concerns about a significant number of students being held back in classes IX and XI. In government schools, 45.08% of the Class IX students didn't qualify for Class X in 2015-16. For Class XI, the number stood at 34.6%. Gupta said the govern ment's Chunauti programme and a fresh opportunity to kids who have failed Class IX more than twice might “make a huge dent in the dropout rate after Class IX“.
2016: Delhi vs. the national average
The Times of India, Apr 12 2016
Manash Gohain However, Class V Students Do Better Than National Average
The performan ce of Class III students in Delhi is lower than the national average in languages and significantly lower in mathematics. However, the trend is bucked in Class V , where student performance is much higher than the national average. Unfortunately , this achievement is not sustained, with performance in mathematics in Classes VIII and X plunging below the national benchmark. These were revealed by the National Achievement Surveys (NAS) conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
Explaining this dismal graph for mathematics, a teacher in a Delhi government school explained, “Up to Class V , mathematics essentially means counting and a bit of fractions. But students find it hard to cope with integers introduced in Class VI because teachers themselves face problems with the subject.“
At the Class VIII level, the worrisome performance comes in mathematics, science and social sciences, where Delhi's student fell below the national average. Ashok Pandey , principal of Ahlcon International School at Mayur Vihar, attributed this to a “mismatch in the syllabi of the various stages from primary classes to middle school, and from high school to senior secondary“.
“Syllabus development has to progress logically else it causes gaps at various levels,“ said Pandey , and pointed out how while primary classes had no separate science subject besides environmental science, from Class VI onwards, the degree of difficulty for students became sharply high with the separation of the subject into science and social science.
“The teacher's ability to teach shows in the learning ability of the child, especially in Class VI where a lot of new concepts are introduced,“ added Anuradha Joshi, principal of Sardar Patel Vidyalaya.
Dropouts
2012-17
As Corporation Schools Cut Corners, Education Suffers Due To Poor Infra
Nursery admis sions bring out the paradox in Delhi's primary education: too many kids vying for limited seats in the few “good“ primary schools and too few interested in the 1,662 primary schools that the municipal corporations run. Last year alone, over 35,000 kids dropped out of the corporation schools to take the figure in the past five years to a staggering 1.38 lakh. Clearly , even for the parents that bring their children to these school, mostly domestic helps and menial workers, quality still matters -and that is what they are not reassured of in the institutions run by the civic bodies.
The first response of the corporations is to argue that the dropout rate is due to the labour families migrating elsewhere for jobs. This argument, however, only damns the corporations because under the Right to Education Act, it is the responsibility of local bodies to map their respective areas and ensure the kids get free and compulsory education.Civic bodies do carry out a survey annually to identify kids “left out of the system“, but this job is left to the already overburdened teachers, who, in any case, do not have the expertise for the complex assignment.
The corporations also handily use the government-mandated quota in private school for the economically weaker sections, called EWS, to explain the reluctance of parents to enrol their children in their schools. “Parents prefer to get the children admitted to private school under the 25% EWS quota so they can study up to Class XII,“ said one corporation official. Since the last municipal polls in 2012, SDMC has shut down seven schools. EDMC has closed down 22, while the north corporation, since 2105, has terminated a huge 48 schools. The civic bodies pleaded that the low number of students warranted the closure of these schools.
Senior officials of the education department of South Delhi Municipal Corporation did admit to the fall in quality of education and enrolment.“However, we have done a lot during in the past two years, especially in terms of infrastructure,“ said one official.“NGOs have been roped in to improve quality . They have set up 25 schools as resource centres and these will adopt 10 other schools each.“ Yet in the same period, over 27,000 kids dropped out of SDMC schools.
Infrastructure improvement has been slow and painful. Mukesh Yadav, SDMC spokesperson, claimed that 89% of its schools now had pucca structures. But 65 schools in south Delhi and 140 in the east don't even have water connections. No wonder, Mukesh Goyal, leader of the Opposition in the north corporation, protested, “In 2015-16 and 2016-17, Rs 20.35 crore was allocated for the purchase of desks, but no money was spent for the purpose in both the years.“
In the north corporation, Mamata Nagpal, chairman of the education committee, said staff shortage was a prime problem. At one point, half the schools there did not have prin cipals. Despite some effort, over 100 still don't have heads.Absolving the civic body of any responsibility , she argued, “We are ready to fill these vacancies too, but Delhi government and Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board need to bring in more manpower.“
Posts of clerical staff, guards and sweepers too are vacant. And, added a north corporation official, “We have a shortage of administrative officers too. Entire north Delhi currently has just around three school inspectors. Directors, whose job it is to formulate policy, keep getting transferred every two months due to political interference.“
An EDMC official also alleged that political recommendations keep piling up in the corporation schools through the year, while in government schools, transfers are effected only in the two months when institutional activity is at a minimum. Such transfers have created teacher numbers disproportionate to students in many schools.
Money , of course, is a big reason why corners are cut. For instance, in the financially stressed east corporation, allocation for education has dropped by Rs 20 crore since 2012.And as usual, the municipal bodies blame the state government for their dismal performance. “We are supposed to get 100% grant-in-aid for schools, but the government, including the earlier Congress one, has reduced the figure to just 58%,“ an official claimed.
Municipal schools
2016: Poor standards
Subodh Varma, How municipal schools are failing city's children, April 22, 2017: The Times of India
The three municipal corporations of Delhi have the responsibility of educating nearly 8.2 lakh children in the primary section, from Class I to V . Given the ever increasing fees in private schools, the municipal schools have a crucial significance. But a report, based on data collected by Praja Foundation through RTI applications, found the enrollment has dropped 27% in the past five years, the dropout rate is at a high 12%, and the pupil-teacher ratio is much higher than the prescribed 1 teacher per 40 students. Supportive programmes like mid-day meals are deficient, school libraries are poor, sports facilities are lacking and a majori ty of students need to supplement school lessons with private tuition.
The report released in December 2016 said the East Delhi Municipal Corporation appeared to be the worst affected, with dropout rates touching 18%, he pupil teacher ratio at 42:1, utilisation of allocated funds under various heads very low, and nil expenditure on mid-day meals and libraries in 2015-16. EDMC had the lowest per student spend among all three corporations.
The south corporation recorded the lowest dropout figures and a better pupil-teacher ratio, but its utilization of Plan allocations was just 67%, even if its spending under non-Plan heads was much higher.
Clearly , a combination of factors -finances, utilization planning (or academic expertise) and political leadership --play a role in this dismal trend. One worrying fallout of this drop in municipal education quality is that families are opting out of the affordable municipal schools and entering the costlier private-education system. Many families are likely to pull out their children at some stage of schooling, and perhaps the axe will fall on the girl child.
Electioneering for the municipal corporations has come to a close. Now the fate of schoolchildren is in the hands of an electorate that has been given wild promises on education by the three main political contenders.
Nursery admissions: Guidelines
The Times of India, Dec 10 2015
No clarity on rent deeds as proof
The directorate of education's failure in including rent agreements as valid document for residence proof has led to confusion among parents. A large number of parents, whose children will be vying for nursery seats, stay on rent and they have been left wondering whether the documents would be acceptable. “We generally accept rent agreement or a bank account passbook with the address on it as residence proof. We are quite flexible in this regard,“ said Tania Joshi, principal, The Indian School. In the past, the DoE suggested the documents.
“I live in a rented house and have gas connection and rent agreement documents.But will they be accepted as valid address proof ?“ asked a parent on admissionsnursery com. The website owner, Sumit Vohra, said about a quarter of his users live on rent.
“Not all schools accept the rent deed as proof. As per convention, registered rent deeds that are six months old should be added to the list of valid documents,“ he said. Many parents choose to move to ar eas rich in schools so they have more options for admitting their wards.
On the draw of lots, the guidelines say it “shall be conducted in a transparent manner, preferably in presence of parents.“ Vohra points out that in past years presence of parents or videography was mandatory . Making this optional gives schools permission to not allow parents during the draw. The debate on upper age limit has been on for years. There will be confusion on this too as some schools include age in their criteria and allot points to it.
The guidelines are for general category and private unaided schools. Though the circular doesn't specify this, the DoE has clarified that it will be applicable to minority institutions as well.
The decision on economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups has been welcomed by schools, though lawyer-activist Khagesh Jha maintains it is discriminatory .“Let the government handle it. Especially after last year, I don't want any problems,“ Joshi said. Delhi Police had cracked down on fake EWS admissions last year and even arrested a school principal.
February 2016
HC restores management quota
The Times of India, Feb 05 2016
Management quota back as HC stays AAP govt's decision The Delhi high court stay ed the AAP government's decision to scrap management quota in nursery admissions on Thursday , calling it a balancing act “whereby discretion of private unaided schools was minimised, but not altogether abolished“. The court said the government's circular staying the quota was “without any authority“ and in conflict with a 2007 order by the LG. The high court's interim order, unless superseded by a larger bench or Supreme Court, is likely to govern nursery admissions this year, reports Abhinav Garg.
In a partial relief, the court endorsed the city government's elimination of 51 of 62 admission criteria, saying “there's nothing in the (remaining) 11 criteria which would show that they are unreasonable...(andor) can lead to maladministration“.
HC stays nursery order to scrap management quota
The Times of India, Feb 05 2016
Abhinav Garg
Says crucial to maintain school autonomy, but okays govt decision to cancel 51 of 62 criteria
The Delhi high court stayed the AAP government's decision to scrap the management quota in nursery admissions. Justice Manmohan said the Delhi government's circular was “without any authority“ and in conflict with a 2007 order issued by the LG. “A balancing act was done by the Ganguly Committee and the government whereby discretion of private unaided schools was minimised, but not altogether abolished,“ Justice Manmohan said, adding that the quota had been recommended by the Ganguly panel and approved by the government in 2007.
There was some consolation for the government as the court endorsed the striking down of 51 of the 62 admission criteria; but 11were retained as the schools pleaded these were necessary to maintain autonomy and discretion. These include proven track record of parents, extra marks for skills in music or sports, empirical achievements and the gender of a child.
The court accepted these on the ground that “there is nothing in the 11criteria which would show that they are unre asonable or based on whims and fancies and or they can lead to maladministration“.
The court pointed out that the 2007 order permitted management quota up to 20% and it cannot be overturned. It said “promoters of a school who make investment at their own personal risk are entitled to full autonomy in administration, including the right to admit students“ as long as they don't misuse it. The court also highlighted the failure of the AAP government to get approval from the LG before issuing the circular.It reminded the government that under the rules, only the LG has the authority to issue guidelines.
The interim order came on the pleas filed by Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools and Forum for Promotion of Quality Education for All, challenging the abolition of the management quota and other criteria by the government.
Differing with the state government, the court said, “Taking into account the parentage of the child may be relevant in certain circumstances, for instance, if the father of the child was a recipient of a gallantry award or a sports award or had given valuable advice and service to the school like a doctor, then giving preferen ce to such a ward in admission would not constitute maladministration. In all probability , such parents would contribute to the growth and evolution of the school as well as its students.“
The court also said that even the EWS category is based on the parentage of a child.
The court recalled the fate of an earlier attempt in 2013 to abolish the management quota and pointed out that the LG's order was quashed by court.
Can't fix upper age limit: HC
The Times of India, Feb 06 2016
Abhinav Garg
Directs DoE To Accept Nursery Applications Till February 9, 2016
Governments can't spring surprises on parents or children in education, which is a Fundamental Right, the Delhi high court said, staying another nursery admission circular of Delhi government. A day after staying the government's decision to scrap the management quota, Justice Manmohan allowed children above the age of four to apply for admissions in pre-school or nursery classes in private schools. The court has told DoE to ensure schools accept application till 4pm of February 9.
The court, however, stopped short of commenting on the absence of LG's sanction for the age criteria after the government submitted that it had not addressed the court on this point. HC then asked the director of education to ensure that EWS applications are also accepted online, and posted the case for further hearing where it will take up other legal issues connected to the circular.
The bench said there was no upper age limit before December 18, 2014, for years and the cap had surprised many parents, who would have planned for the admission of their children if they had known it earlier.
The court also acknowledged that it becomes diffi cult for children to get admission in higher classes if they have not studied in the same school earlier since institutions prefer to promote their own students.
HC's order came on a number of petitions filed by minors or their parents, challenging the Delhi government's notification fixing the maximum age for nursery in private unaided schools at four years. Advocates Ashok Aggarwal and Rishi Manchanda appeared for some of the petitioners.
