Explained: Why Delhi's school reforms are not yet a runaway success

Dual control exercised by two divergent govts is one of the main reasons holding the effort back

If the parts are faulty, can one churn out a perfect end product? That’s the crux of why the Delhi school reforms undertaken by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government are not an unqualified success.

To understand this, first we need to appreciate everything Delhi has managed to get right. A recent study by consultancy firm BCG has found that perhaps the biggest reform pulled off by AAP is the sea change in the mindset of the most important resource in the city's government schools: Teachers and the headmaster. 

Teachers have been made to feel human and are being treated with respect and dignity. Contractual arrangements have been regularised. Between 2015 and 2020, 13,298 regular teachers were hired and the net increase in the total number of guest teachers was 3,940. Increments and promotions were given where due, and grievances were settled wherever possible.

An ease of working has been brought in, where the teachers’ burden has been lightened to the extent possible so they can focus on their primary job: Teaching. And their training (all teachers have been retrained since the reform effort started) is conducted in air conditioned halls.

Headmasters (over 1,000) have been sent overseas, including to Cambridge and Singapore, or to institutions like the IIMs for training. They’ve also been granted more financial leeway so they don’t have to always approach the district education officer to get every expenditure or file cleared. Such trust has been placed in them for the very first time. 

Second, better infrastructure has proved to be a game changer. Schools enveloped in an atmosphere of indifference and neglect (broken chairs and desks, cobwebs in rooms, dirty, smelly toilets, weed-filled playgrounds) have been spruced up. “The school has become a more welcoming space and a feeling of despondency has given way to hope,” says Seema Bansal, partner and director, BCG, who is also Asia Pacific leader for the firm’s social impact practice. 

Allocation for capital expenditure went up from Rs 51 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 346 crore annualised between 2015-16 and 2019-20.

Two other steps have helped hugely. One, instead of keeping parents out, schools are now sending invitation cards for parent-teacher interactions. Many parents contacted for the study expressed surprise, awe and delight at being offered a cup of tea at their child’s school. Meena Kumari, a domestic help in one of Patparganj’s ubiquitous societies whose three children study in a Delhi government school, says earlier the guards would shoo them away as they would “stray dogs”. She says never in her wildest dreams did she expect to be served a cup of tea at her children’s school.

The change in the school’s attitude towards parents has reflected in a change in the parents’ attitude towards schooling, education and its benefits. The parents have begun to take whatever the school says more seriously, rather than brushing their children off when they mention what the school requires of them.

What has also helped is a reform in the way the school management committee (SMC) operates. SMCs, which include parents, have been reconstituted, strengthened and empowered, allowing them to inspect, assess and fix things — from asking for corridors to be cleaned to taking disciplinary action against a teacher or staff member. The involvement of Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, too, has acted as a major incentive. 

The outcome: For the first time, Delhi government schools recorded a higher pass percentage (98 per cent) than private schools (92 per cent) in the Class 12 CBSE board exams in 2019.

Now, for the bad news. While the number of those clearing Class 12 exams has gone up, there are many who drop out or fail to take the exam. Till Class 8, students move from grade to grade without a care in the world, but in Class 9, when they face their first exam, almost half fail to clear it. So, the pass percentage for Class 9 has hovered around 58-59 per cent, a reflection of the “accumulated learning deficit”, says Bansal. 

This is where politics comes in. The students that enter Delhi government schools are a product of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools (currently under the Bharatiya Janata Party). In the national capital, MCD schools hold classes for students up to Class 5 — that is, till they are about 11 or 12. So, by the time the Delhi schools get their hands on them, the damage has, in some sense, been done. 

Many students have already fallen behind in their foundational learning and cannot even read or speak at three grades below their age levels. Close to 25 per cent of the Class 8 students in Delhi schools do not have foundational competencies. Many of these students are still at grade 2 or 3 level. 

Although Delhi has launched programmes like Chunaoti (challenge) and Buniyaad (foundation), the void is often so large that no matter what the schools try to do, it cannot be bridged at this late stage. “Unless the MCD schools are taken over by Delhi (government), there is no way the reforms can be an unequivocal success,” says Vikas Jhunjhunwala, who runs a budget private schools but has been following with keen interest the Delhi government’s progress. 

Similar reforms have been undertaken by MCD schools in conjunction with Education Alliance and a clutch of NGOs but these are not yet wide or deep enough to make any significant dent. 

A second black hole that the students and parents find themselves in is when they pass out of Class 12 and ask: What next? While the Delhi government can prepare students for the future, in a country where jobs are elusive to most, what hope do they have when competing with elite children from privileged backgrounds?

The BCG team that has worked closely on examining the reform effort is convinced that the biggest challenge remains the dual control exercised by two divergent governments and political ideologies over the schooling of the state’s children. And while it may be good to celebrate the successes so far, the fact that enrollments in Delhi schools have not shown a sharp spike indicates that it’s too early to declare victory. A robust start, however, has  been made.