Govt to grade all Delhi schools on infra, academics, inclusion
For the first time ever, the Delhi government has decided to grade around 5,600 schools in the city on the basis of the infrastructure they possess and academic facilities they offer.
The government has enlisted the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) to assess each government, private, and municipal school on three primary criteria — safety, teaching-learning facilities, community engagement in case of government and municipal schools and social inclusion in case of private schools.
DCPCR is the statutory body to monitor implementation of rights of children and the Right To Education Act, 2009 in the city.
The evaluation and grading fram-ework will be ready by May-end.
It is also in the process of developing software to conduct the exercise. The evaluation process will begin in August and the grades of the schools will be announced on Children’s Day, November 14, which parents will be able to access on a web-
site.The exercise, which was announced by deputy chief minister and education minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi government’s budget, will help parents choose a school for their wards based on hard information and not merely rely on public perception of an institute. Delhi has 5,800 recognised schools, but 200 of them are minority schools which will not be graded as they do not fall under the RTE.
“As of now parents have to rely on general perception while choosing a school. They go by the look of school building and perception of the school in their friend’s circle. But now we will give them credible information on every aspect of the school. It
will also help the government in fixing responsibility in cases of shortcomings by school and concerned departments,” said Anurag Kundu, member, DCPCR.
The entry point for school education in the city is nursery admission, which is a highly competitive process with most parents in the city struggling to secure a seat in a few schools of their choice. The grading decision comes in the backdrop of incidents of violence in schools in recent years such as murder of a schoolboy in a Gurgaon school, the rape of a minor girl by a school attendant in Delhi, and the death of a student by who fell into a septic tank in school.