Team Herald
MARGAO: “The only way to build the nation is through education”, were the opening remarks of Manish Sisodia, the Education Minister of Delhi. Speaking for half an hour, Sisodia spoke of the policies his Government has implemented which have helped improve the infrastructure and quality of education in Delhi.
Claiming that 95% of children are yet to have access to quality education, he stated that his goal has been to ensure that every child has access to good education. “When I became the Minister, saw a school where there were 174 students in one class”, he said. He explained how they began working on infrastructure and allocated 26% of their budget on education which he claims has been spending wisely.
While increasing the number of classrooms by 8000 and another 12000 in the pipeline, he stated that the other change that he brought about in the system was to not allow any teacher to do be deputed for family or voter registration.
To ensure that the infrastructure is maintained, he said that he implemented a policy where every school appoints an Estate Manager for the specific task of maintenance. He even gave the liberty of appointing the estate manager to schools to avoid any favouritism in the appointment at the Department level.
Sisodia credited the efforts of Atishi Marlena, he stated without her, the government would not have been able to achieve so much.
“We have to understand from the bottom what plagues the system”, he said. “Every morning I go to schools and talk to students and teachers to find out problems. The real problems are in the Directorate, not in the schools”.
He explained how his government created customised training programs for principals and teachers after speaking to experts in the field from Harvard, IIM and universities in other countries. He also informed the government of the campaign they ran to invite parents to the school PTA meetings. “In our first meeting, we had 95% of parents attending”, he said. He gave several anecdotes of the interventions in schools that have helped him shape the education polity.
Commenting on the education policy at the national level, he said that India does not have an Education Ministry and that it’s a shame for a nation that education is managed by Human Resource Ministry. “We don’t want to develop children as a resource. We want to develop them as human beings. If we have to give 24 years of our lives for education, make us good human beings,” he said.
