New Delhi: The Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP) Government in Delhi promised to bring government schools
on a par with the private ones. To achieve this rather humongous challenge, the
government plans to send 200 principals to Harvard and Cambridge, while 200
others will be sent to the Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs). ]
According to sources,
90 of the 200 principals would be sent to Cambridge in the first phase. In this
year’s budget, it has ear-marked Rs 102 crore for this purpose. Presenting the
budget for this financial year Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is
also the Education minister, had said that the focus areas this year would be
training and capacity building of teachers.
The fact that the
quality of teaching in government-run schools across the country requires a
massive revamp needs no overstating. While the weaknesses in many such schools—crumbling
infrastructure, poor student-teacher ratio and underpaid teachers among
others — have been apparent for many years now.
Last year, Maharashtra held
an evaluation test for teachers and only one percent of primary school teachers
cleared it. In the case of upper primary teachers it was around five percent.
Their command over the language was abysmal. No attention has been given to
this area by governments.
However, it is not only
knowledge of the subject or skills at teaching, teachers need to stay updated
on managerial skills too. The principals trained abroad and IIMs would
form a knowledge pool and help in upgrading the skills of other in their
fraternity.
Whether the new move by the government
has the
competence to turn around an existing system or not, only time would
tell.
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