Delhi Education Board will ensure year-round evaluation: Manish Sisodia

Delhi deputy Chief Minister and finance minister Manish Sisodia presented a “deshbhakti budget” to the tune of Rs 69,000 crore this week. Excerpts from an interview with Prerna Katiyar:

Why did the Delhi government focus on deshbhakti in the latest Budget?

If we will not talk about it in the runup to 75
th year of Independence, when will we? It’s a big opportunity that we are working at such a time. We need to make people realise the dreams of Gandhi-Bhagat Singh—Bose-Babasaheb. We can’t build the India we want after 100 years in a day or two. For that we will have to start now.

What is AAP’s dream for Delhi?

We would like to see a clean Delhi, as a city with high per capita, good sports opportunity, good economy, self-reliance, job opportunities and services and prosperity in general. For this we need to ensure the best opportunities in education, health, sanitation and make Delhi pollution free.

Your Budget aims at achieving Singapore’s per capita income of Rs 48 lakh by 2047. How will you multiply the level 16 times from our current level of Rs 3.54 lakh when we took 5 years to double to our present level?

Its foundation is better education and better economic activities whose result will have a cascading effect if we start now. We chose to target Singapore as it is close to us in many ways and its journey to prosperity is not 100-year-old. To match their 2047 expected level of Rs 48 lakh – we need to grow ours 16 times. The basis of it is education and entrepreneurship and including more women in the working force especially those who take a break due to familial commitment. We will call it “Second Innings of Career” whose pilot we are launching in collaboration with Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University (for Women) and then scale it up.

If you want to make the economy to boom, all economists say ensure more money in the hands of the common man. All our schemes ensure that the common man now has to pay less for
bijli-pani. If you add cash value at mass level, it has a cascading effect – it’s a big intervention by our government.

What was the need for a separate Delhi Education Board? Don’t you feel focussing on better pedagogy and infrastructure would reap benefits and with the new board Delhi students will be at a disadvantage as CBSE syllabus is in sync with competitive exam’s syllabus?

Although CBSE is doing a good job, I disagree that it is enough for competitive exams. Talk to them and 99% of CBSE students will tell you they take coaching for competitive exams – there is dual pressure to do well in board exams and also prepare for competitions; they have two different worlds with no match. He has to cover two different syllabi – a total paradigm shift. This is one reason. Our Board will fill that gap. This will bring synergy between board exams and JEE preparation. Second purpose is while we talk about 360-degree development, understanding concepts, personality development etc unfortunately all our boards are based on rote learning based on performance on one exam at year end. Evaluation ought to be a continuous process. No other country does that. We keep saying on building concepts but when it comes to exams, we just finish syllabus and prepare kids based on last 5-10-years question papers – irrespective he has understood the concepts or not. Our pedagogy has become captive/ hostage of a one-time examination system; unless we change that we can’t change our classroom teaching by merely writing a good Education Policy. CBSE doesn’t do continuous evaluation but our board will do that – terminal exam is not THE exam – like most progressive countries are doing. This will be the first of its kind in the school system in India.

You had aired some reservations on Central government’s National Education Policy?

It’s a good policy idea but lacks a road map for its implementation.

Your budget has Rs 50 crore allocation for vaccination but that will cover only 17-18 lakh people. Is that enough?

Budget is as per demand. If and when there is demand we will allocate more money. Rs 50 core is to start with – our commitment is for giving free vaccines to everyone who wants to come to a government hospital.

What about the long pending issue of regularisation of guest teachers at Delhi government schools?

We had said that but unfortunately the Central government has snatched the Services department from us which is now with the LG now. We can’t do much but still we got their salary raised somehow after long talks – which is now at par with the basic salary of full-time teachers. If the Supreme Court decision comes in our favour and we are the deciding authority then we will decide. Right now, the BJP has to decide.





Source link

Leave a comment