Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during an interaction with principals of government schools on Saturday. (Source: Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey ) Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during an interaction with principals of government schools on Saturday. (Source: Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey )

A separate education board, experimental curriculum, reward of foreign training and increments to motivate principals to make their schools a model for private schools — these are some of the changes that the Delhi’s education system will see in the coming days.

The changes were announced during an interaction of around 1,000 government school principals and education department officials with Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at Thyagaraj Stadium on Saturday.

Sisodia said Delhi is working towards forming its own education board. “Delhi’s education system is running on an Act that was made in 1973. The law has now become obsolete as the world has moved forward. We need to upgrade the system and modernise it. Send in your suggestions. Delhi doesn’t have a board of its own. Arvind and I went to Bawana and we visited a school on the way (to the meet). I asked the teachers what they wanted. They gave brilliant suggestions. They told us of the difference between NCERT chapters and the modern education imparted in private schools. I am not saying NCERT and CBSE are not appropriate, but we need to move forward. We need to change the curriculum as well,” Sisodia said.

He gave an example of a school that has created its own curriculum. “Students studying in Class I will understand what a mother means as every subject will be with reference to the mother — be it a poem or a sentence. Similarly, Class II students will learn the syllabus vis-a-vis the father, Class III students will deal with siblings, Class IV deals with society and surroundings and Class V with nature. The student will become a better person this way,” Sisodia said.

Stating that people send their children to government schools only when they fail to get admission in public schools, Sisodia said the government wants to change this attitude. “One of the priorities of this government is education,” Sisodia said.

Kejriwal also threw an open challenge to principals to prepare a blueprint for their respective schools to turn it into a model school and submit it to the Directorate of Education in 15 days. The success of the model school will then be assessed at the end of the year on two parameters — class-wise academic performance and satisfaction of parents.

Kejriwal said the top 10 principals and teachers will be rewarded with training programmes in foreign schools. They will also be given performance allowance equal to two increments every month for a year, he said.

Kejriwal also announced that the Public Works Department has been directed to build new classrooms so that each classroom need only accommodate 40 students and not 100. The CM said the government will start 45 more schools in a year’s time.

In what has been termed a welcome step by principals, Kejriwal said non-academic work will be taken away from teachers. “Most teachers spend time in election duties or filing registers. I have spoken to the Chief Election Officer of Delhi and this will be sorted out soon. Teachers will get ministerial staff to assist them in non-academic work,” Kejriwal said.

Sisodia, meanwhile, asked the principals to take the moral responsibility of students.

“If a crime happens in Delhi, the PM or CM… should summon the education minister as well and ask him to create a strong system to ensure it is not repeated,” he said.

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