In an interview with the Indian Express, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia expressed that the reason behind education’s quality gone bad is that everyone is focusing on everything but content.
Government school results for classes 10 and 12 in Delhi have been quite promising. In the past one year, the government has been focusing on improving infrastructure and learning in schools.
Sisodia says, “We were very strict about preventing cheating in exams this time, and I was concerned that this would affect the results. But that didn’t happen, and I was happy. Delhi schools were ahead of all private and government schools across the country.”
Now, he says, the need is to focus on content, not changing it but fixing the problems. Examining the books used in Hindi-medium schools, it was doubtful if any student could fully understand the language. The need was to write books which students can understand. For students to being able to decipher the content of their books, books needed to revolutionize.
For this sake, the government picked a few experts and got them to write books. They also arranged for some good translators and made them work on a few books. These books are now being handed over to teachers at these schools.
“Why aren’t we getting quality education even in places where there are good teachers and good infrastructure? It is because we have never paid attention to content; we are doing that now. And when I say content, I mean its quality — quality of books, of communication and also of teaching methods,” he says.
Following the big drop in private school results, the Deputy ensures his team is looking into the matter and will try to set everything alright. His words were, “Whether a Class 12 student from a government school or a private school fails, ultimately it is a student failing. We will do whatever is needed.”