Looking back 2023: Education reforms on ground like never before
Vishav Bharti
Chandigarh, December 30
From regularisation of 12,500 contractual teachers to strengthening infrastructure in schools to timely delivery of uniforms and textbooks to the launch of ‘Schools of Eminence’, 2023 witnessed the Education Department departing from practice of painting the walls and terming them as ‘smart schools’.
HIGHS
- Regularisation of 12,500 teachers
- Launch of Schools of Eminence
- Timely delivery of uniforms and books
- Around 10,000 schools connected with high-speed Internet
LOWS
- The AAP government promotes New Education Policy-2020
- Under construction ‘School of Eminence’ collapses, leaving a teacher dead
- Suicide by Assistant Professor in Ropar
Just before the Assembly poll in 2022, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had given eight guarantees for education sector which included transformation of the education system, regularisation of contractual jobs, change in transfer policy, no non-teaching work for teachers, filling vacancies, training from abroad, timely promotion and cashless medical treatment for teachers and their families.
Though the first guarantee still seems a distant dream, the year witnessed some reforms in education sector on the ground, which never happened before. It included job protection of 12,500 contractual teachers. The government gave salary hike and claimed it as regularisation but the teachers were not given regular scales.
The government launched ‘Schools of Eminence’ and announced to spend Rs 1,600 crore to strengthen infrastructure in schools.
It included high-speed internet and new benches at a cost of Rs 25 crore and Rs 20,000 per month for every school to maintain cleanliness and construction of boundary wall of 7,000 schools for Rs 358 crore.
A total of Rs 60 crore has been spent on constructing washrooms and Rs 800 crore on 10,000 new classrooms.
Even as Education Minister Harjot Bains claimed that the government had transformed the education system, restlessness among teachers and other employees continued throughout the year. A jobless teacher Balwinder Kaur had blamed Education Minister Harjot Bains in her suicide note.
Though the AAP government has sent four batches of teachers to Singapore for training, its own District Institute for Educational Training is in a shambles.
