India is the world’s fifth-largest economy with a GDP of $2.9 trillion according to the World Economic Outlook (October 2019). India aims to become the fastest-growing major economy in the world piggybacking on its biggest structural advantage of a young population in an ageing world. Presently, around 1 million people join our country’s workforce every month. By 2041, India with about 1.3 billion is poised to strike a demographic sweet spot when the percentage of our working population would soar. Therefore investment in quality education for the better future of our children is extremely important. Unfortunately, the country’s expenditure on education (as % of GDP) in 2019–20 is only 3.1% (Economic Survey 2019–20). In contrast, the OECD average of total expenditure on educational institutions from primary to tertiary (as % of GDP) in 2016 itself was 5%.
However one Indian state has already set in motion a remarkable education reform journey! In fact in this state, the Education Minister starts his day by visiting a government school every day. Seems improbable and yet through our first-hand interactions with Shri Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Education of Delhi Government, his level of commitment has been evident in the determination shown by the State government of Delhi towards the most remarkable education reform in India in recent times.
Here’s a humble attempt to capture this phenomenal educational reform journey and collate some of the key ingredients that contributed to its success. Delhi’s investment in education for 2019–20 as a ratio to aggregate expenditure is 25.3% is highest among all states of India. Delhi has invested more in education than any other state in the last 5 years.
So, where did the Delhi government channelize this investment towards and how did they usher in such a massive change?
The 4 pillars of the Delhi Education Model
‘Quality of learning spaces is intricately linked to the self-respect that students feel coming into their school and we managed to change that across all our 1024 schools’ ~ Manish Sisodia.
1) Improving School Infrastructure
In his seminal book, Shiksha, Mr Sisodia talks about the dignity offered to learners through the learning space and environment created for them. The book chronicles his sheer dismay during his first few visits to government schools, where he saw a crippled school infrastructure replete with dilapidated classrooms, non-functional blackboards, broken lights/ fans/ windows, unusable toilets, playgrounds filled with garbage and debris and over-filled classrooms.
Transforming infrastructure across its 1024 schools was undertaken on a war-footing. 8000 new classrooms were built out of the intended target of 30,000 new classrooms. 25 new schools have been built. 54 model schools have been identified to be upgraded with better infrastructure and introduction of SMART classrooms and labs with modern facilities. Sports, play infrastructure, libraries and all such facilities are being upgraded and modernised.
2) Investing in School Leaders and Teachers
School Leaders — Across most public schools in India, Principals (Heads of Schools) have been reduced to mere administrative and bureaucratic roles. Through multiple conversations with principals, the Delhi Government built insights on what held Principals back from having a vision for their schools. They soon realised it was the lack of an enabling environment. Principals were sent on leadership development programmes and exposed to the best teaching/learning institutions nationally and globally to inspire them with what is possible. For the first time, principals had the freedom to allocate budgets to improve both school and learning outcomes. Schools could budget for an Estate Manager to take care of infrastructural issues. Principals were trusted to take decisions in the best interest of their schools, encouraged to have a 5 to 10-year vision for their school and students. Furthermore all bureaucratic hurdles were also removed.
Teachers — Recognising the critical role that teachers play in shaping values, beliefs, and world views of learners the Delhi Government created spaces for teachers to be heard, by ensuring teachers had safe, welcoming, and enriching staff rooms to rest and revitalize in. Thoughtful investments such as a tablet for every teacher to ease reporting and administrative duties, reduction in non-teaching roles such as government surveys and census, ensuring personal & professional growth, learning and recognition went a long way in re-inspiring teachers back into the profession.
The Mentor Teacher (MT) Program- The program was conceptualized in 2016 to alter the structure of the ineffective in-service teacher training and to institutionalise the structure of on-site support. 200 teachers from the Directorate of Education were selected as the first batch of MTs for 2 years to leverage their creative expertise by providing on-site learning support to other teachers and organising workshops to strengthen academic and pedagogic capacities of their fellow teachers. Mentor Teachers have played a pivotal role in the design, implementation, support, and evaluation of
new initiatives including Mission Buniyaad, Happiness Curriculum and the Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum.
3) Parents as Partners in a Learner’s Journey
Most students in government schools in Delhi are either first-generation school-goers or learners, many of their parents have either never been to school or did not complete school. In fact many parents have never been inside their child’s school, creating a huge disconnect between the school, teachers and parents. Two massive initiatives attempted to change this — Re-activating School Management Committees (SMCs) and hosting regular Parent-Teacher Meetings (PTMs).
SMCs are mandated by the Right to Education Act (2009). However, most schools either had SMCs only on paper or included members known to them. Each SMC must have 16 members, 12 of them being guardians of the students, the principal, a representative of the local MLA, a teacher and a social worker. The government followed the due process and held democratic elections to build active, vibrant, and contributing SMCs in each school. The SMC supports the principal with key decisions and share issues, challenges and highlights directly with the government. This initiative has helped decentralise education management and provided agency to parents and schools to contribute actively for learners.
To create trust between parents and teachers and develop a strong relationship, PTMs were introduced and hosted across all government schools every 3–4 months on the same day. To encourage and inspire parents to attend and to permit employers to give half-day off for parents to attend the PTMs, adverts in Newspapers and Radio were put up, circulars and WhatsApp messages sent. Parents had the opportunity to meet teachers and learn of their children’s progress in academics and aptitude, values and behaviours.
4) Reimagining the Learning Journey of each child
While addressing some of the systemic and structural issues plaguing education in Delhi, the government also needed to tackle learning gaps in children concurrently and with equal rigour. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) estimates show that the proportion of Indian children and young people achieving a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics at the end of primary education is only 46.30% and 43.60% as on 2017. This was no different for Delhi government schools.
Bridging Learning Gaps — A host of initiatives were launched to address the learning gaps to bring students up to grade-level learning. These include –
1) Chunauti 2018 — aimed towards bridging the gaps of foundational learning for grade 6 & 8 and supporting all the students in upper primary classes to be able to read, write, and do basic maths, and attain learning outcomes appropriate to their grade level.
2) Reading Campaign focussed on enabling all children to read.
3) Pragati Series — In collaboration with NGO Pratham created supplementary learning materials for students of classes 6 to 8 in English, Hindi, Maths, Science and Social subjects.
4) Mission Buniyaad — towards making all children in classes 3 to 9 in Delhi Government, municipal corporations, NDMC and Delhi Cantonment Board schools to read, write, and do basic maths operations at grade level competency. Annual Summer Camps welcomed students joining Delhi Government schools to help them familiarize with their new schools, and also to engage them through art, craft, role play, etc.
Schools of Excellence — To demonstrate models of high-achievement schools, Delhi Government introduced the School of Excellence for all-round development of children enabling them to achieve their highest potential. The goal is to transform all schools in Delhi as Schools of Excellence.
Happiness Curriculum -’ The Happiness Curriculum delivered as a daily session for all students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 provides a sense of joy and engagement through mindfulness practices and by developing skills like empathy, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and collaboration to build meaningful relationships and learn to thrive.
Entrepreneurship Mind-set Curriculum — A curriculum introduced for 9–12 graders to teach key 21st century skills focused on shifting mind-sets of students from being job-seekers to job-creators, to make students future ready for a changing world.
Impact of Education Reforms
The fruits of these efforts are beginning to show results. The pass percentage of the 2016 Class 12 students under the AAP government was 85.9%. In 2017 it improved to 88.2%, 90.6% in 2018), 94.24% in 2019), and 97.8% in 2020. Government school results were 5.9 percentage points higher than private schools’ in Delhi.
The performance of government schools in Delhi improved by around 11 percentage points, from 71.6% in 2019 to 82.61% this year, in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 exams. The government schools had recorded a pass percentage of 68.9% in 2017–18 and 71.6% in 2018–19.
The average Quality Index (QI), reflecting the performance of each student, has also increased to 341 this year from 306 in 2019 in government schools.
Not resting on its laurels, in 2020, the plan is to introduce a new curriculum focused on Citizenship. The Delhi Government has also launched two high-level committees to set up a Delhi School Board and Curriculum Reforms across the board.
The Core Guiding Principles
As we acknowledge the tremendous Delhi Education Reform journey, we need to recognize that the success is guided by certain core principles –
1. Decentralizing control and building agency — Investments in long-pending initiatives around school-leadership development, teacher professional development and giving agency back to school leaders, teachers, parents and students are ideas that have modelled their success.
2. According dignity — Investments in high-quality school infrastructure, functional SMCs, regular PTMs, upskilling teachers and mentor teachers, clearing pathways for school leaders to perform their primary function and give them funds, resources and people to support them has led to far-reaching mind-set shifts around their role.
3. Collaborative Culture — Removal of age-old silos between different government departments delivering educational services, thereby ensuring the focus is on the child and therefore enabling a clear delta shift in the realization of educational outcomes.
4. Speed with Stillness — This reform has only been possible because of the deep sense of engagement and involvement of the government with all the stakeholders involved. Meetings are never rushed, the members listen and then take quick decisions and action.
Conclusion
Even as other State Governments look to replicate the more widely recognised educational initiatives of the Delhi Government, the fervent request to them is to first understand that mere replication of piece-meal initiatives will only act as a Band-Aid in an already broken system, political will remains the key first ingredient. The AAP government brought education and health at the forefront of its political debate and mandated that elections and political leaders be elected on outcomes related to education and health. From increasing budgetary allocations in Education, to the Education Minister visiting schools every day to the high levels of transparency, freedom and accountability in the reforms process are some of the demonstrable actions around political will. Delhi’s educational reform story is all about political will and definitive vision followed by quick action and a collaborative process to remove the systemic barriers and inequities plaguing education.
Suchetha Bhat is CEO, Dream of Dream.
Vishal Talreja is the co-founder of Dream a Dream
A version of this article was published in The Bastion in November 2020)