Delhi govt’s 2-day National Seminar on ‘Improving School Education’ sets agenda for school reform

Academics, researchers and educators from across the country discussed challenges and opportunities in school education reformDelhi leading the discourse for a new model of government school administration

The two-day national seminar organised by Delhi government on ‘Improving School Education’ concluded on Wednesday. The seminar which was held at the India International Centre saw massive participation from several of the city’s education sector organisations, academics, teachers, etc. The seminar was aimed at building a consensus among academics, researchers as well as practitioners about the best practices that can be employed to reform government school education.

Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Mr Manish Sisodia was the Chief Guest of the programme. The Keynote addresses were delivered by engineer and innovator Mr Sonam Wangchuk, Prof Shyam Menon and Ms Abha Adams.

Dy CM & @Minister_Edu @msisodia At National Seminar On Education organised by Delhi Government. pic.twitter.com/9xZ6nEWNKP

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) February 27, 2018

Deputy Chief Minister said, “The Delhi government has made significant progress, whether it is in terms of infrastructure upgrade, teacher and principal capacity building or parent-community participation in school administration. We are now taking our interventions a step forward through the introduction of the Happiness Curriculum. It is important that there is an academic discourse and consensus on the model of school education reform that needs to be adopted to improve our schools. I am happy that Delhi has taken the initiative to build thought leadership, through this national seminar.”

Mr Sonam Wangchuk, the keynote speaker who spoke on the first day, said, “Government school education can only be improved when there is a strong demand for change from the people themselves. The push for better schools has to come from the people, only then will governments take the right steps. We need a movement to make education an election issue.”

Delhi Government's National Seminar on Improving School Education begins. Dy CM @msisodia and @AtishiMarlena present at the event. pic.twitter.com/uONO9DqVAd

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) February 27, 2018

Research papers were presented under the chairpersonship of Mr Subir Shukla, Prof Namita Ranganathan, Ms Atishi Marlena, Prof R Govinda, Prof Manish Jain, Dr Divya Jalan and Mr Sunish Jauhari. The topics covered by the panels were, “Bridging learning gaps”, “Innovations in Teaching & Learning Materials”, “Shifting Paradigms for Teacher Training”, “Improving School Leadership”, “Impact of Effective School Management Committees”, “Tackling Learning Disabilities”, “Incorporating Human Values in the Classroom”.

This was the first such national level seminar organised by the Delhi government. The government has been proactively taking several measures to improve the quality of government schools in the city. The seminar was a step towards linking the academic discourse around education with education governance.