This comes amid the ongoing face-off between the AAP and BJP over the Delhi government’s work in education. The Delhi BJP has been attacking the Delhi government’s ‘education model’ on various fronts, including alleging a scam in the construction of classrooms. (File)The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights has issued a notice to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi “seeking an explanation” for the poor performance of its schools at the class III level in last year’s National Achievement Survey (NAS).
This comes amid the ongoing face-off between the AAP and BJP over the Delhi government’s work in education. The Delhi BJP has been attacking the Delhi government’s ‘education model’ on various fronts, including alleging a scam in the construction of classrooms.
The National Achievement Survey was conducted in November 2021 for students in classes III, V and VIII and its findings were released this May. The report had shown Delhi to be featured in the five states with the lowest average score in both Math and Language at the class III level.
This has now been taken up by the DCPCR, which has referred to this as a failure of MCD schools. “The responsibility of imparting primary education lies with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Therefore, the findings of NAS 2021 for class III are a direct commentary on the quality of teaching and learning in Municipal Schools,” reads the notice for inquiry.
“The NAS class III results paint a dismal picture of teaching and learning in Municipal Schools which rank Delhi among the lowest five performing states in India. In fact, the class III results of Municipal Corporation of Delhi are below the national average in all three subjects: Language, Maths and Environmental Studies. The average state score for class III in language is merely 52 per cent while the national average is 62%. Let it be noted that the poor performance cannot be pandemic as the score for class III in National Achievement Survey 2017 was merely 58%,” it states, asking for an “explanation” for the performance within two weeks.
The MCD said in a statement, “The learning outcome for Class 3 for Delhi state includes all categories of schools… private, government aided, central government, state government, which also includes MCD schools. It is difficult to fathom how MCD schools can be pointed at for overall performance of class 3 in learning outcome for language, when it has 28% of the total share of students of Delhi State. Schools taken for survey under NAS, more than 70% are ones other than MCD schools… The corporation, nonetheless, will respond to the notice… soon.”