Parents demand computer education in municipal schools
NEW DELHI: The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) organised parent-teacher meeting for 2,93,000 students in its 579 primary schools on Sunday — the first such exercise in the city by corporation schools.
These schools provide free education to students from Nursery to Class 5. In July, the Delhi government had organised similar meetings in its 1,000 schools.
SDMC claims that 80% of children’s parents attended the meeting. SDMC spokesperson Manoj Yadav said, “Computer education was the demand made by most of the parents which we are planning to start by the next academic season. Also, many said that teachers should give regular home work to children and there should be greater interaction with parents.”
Jai Prakash, a driver, who earns ₹9,000 a month, took an off on Sunday to attend the meeting in his daughters’ school in Andrews Ganj. He said, “I wanted to know if my child would get computer education as nowadays, in every office there are people working on it.”
The most important part of the meeting was for teachers to tell parents to get an Aadhar card for the students.
The civic body gives ₹500 for uniform to every student, ₹1,000 to students of other backward classes, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and ₹500 /year to girls studying in Classes 4 & 5.
“The money transfer that we do to students is only through bank accounts now, which are linked with Aadhar card to avoid duplicity,” said Neelam Kapoor, 57, a teacher at Andrew’s Ganj.
Shabnam, 35, who lives in Kalkaji said, “We want more such meets to happen. We are illiterate and don’t know what our children are doing. The only way we can know is through teachers.”
“The condition has improved in past two years in the school. Teachers now devote more time to students. Earlier, my children often complained that teachers roam outside while senior students bully him,” she added.
School inspector Pramod Kumar, who was supervising the meet at a municipal school in Kalkaji, said that such schools had a bigger responsibility than private schools because most of the students were first generation learners in their families.
“In some cases, there is pressure upon them to leave education so that they can earn money. But we have to encourage them so that they stick to their studies and get a better future,” he said.