Delhi set to make govt schools co-ed for ‘better results’
NEWDELHI: The Delhi government is set to convert its existing allgirls’ and all-boys’ schools into co-ed ones, and evening shifts schools into general shift ones. The examination branch of the Directorate of Education (DOE) on Monday instructed the officials to come up with three detailed plans to implement the conversion by July 2020.
The government is likely to begin the process from the next academic session in schools which hosts sufficient infrastructure for the planned conversion.
The move comes after the DOE analysed the board exam results of the last several years for all its schools and found that the co-ed and general shift schools had been consistently performing better. In a circular issued Monday, additional director (examination) Saroj Sain said a detailed analysis of results has shown that it can be improved with general shift schools, co-ed schools, optimum enrolment, better pupilteacher ratio and Delhi government’s ‘Mission Buniyaad’ scheme, among others. In Delhi, while there are 401 government boys’ schools and 421 girls’ schools, there are only 173 co-ed schools. Some of these run in double shifts — for girls in the morning and boys in the evening.
Binay Bushan, director of the DOE, said the government has been trying to increase the infrastructure, in terms of classrooms, in the existing schools to make them ready to become single-shift and co-ed schools. “It has been observed that the co-ed schools are not only performing better but also over-all development is found to be better there. The major reason behind the Delhi government constructing more and more classrooms in it schools is to convert them into singleshift and co-ed schools,” he said.
Delhi government had last month said it was thinking to open more co-ed schools in the city while sharing the data showing co-ed schools performing better than the all-girls’ and all-boys’ schools. In Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 10 exams this year, the pass percentage of government co-ed school stood at 88.1% followed by all-girls’ school (82%) and boys’ schools (74.8%). Similarly for Class 12, the pass percentage of government co-ed schools was recorded at 98.03%, higher than girls’ schools (97.42%) and boys’ schools (93.42 %).
A senior DOE official said it will be a challenge for the department to encourage more parents to send their children to co-ed schools. “We will have to sensitise parents in overcoming their hesitation towards sending their children to co-ed schools. Also, we will have to sensitise the students who will be studying with the opposite sex for the first time. Some principals are also apprehensive about the plan saying that some parents can stop sending their girls to schools if they will have to study with the boys,” the official, who did not wish to be named, said The principal of a government boys’ senior secondary school in Rohini said the move will help students perform better and indulge in co-curricular activities.