Chunauti reforms challenge has experts divided

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government’s ambitious policy to divide students into groups based on their learning levels has education experts divided.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government’s ambitious policy to divide students into groups based on their learning levels has education experts divided.

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The policy, called Chunauti 2018, divides students into groups of those who know how to read in accordance to the class they are in and those who don’t.

These groups are taught from separate books twice a week, based on their learning levels.

The policy is not new and has been tried in several countries and Indian cities.

According to Jasmine Shah of Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, dividing children into groups is a sensible way to tackle the problem of poor learning levels.

Shah’s organisation has worked with Pratham, the NGO that is working with the Delhi government for Chunauti 2018, on similar programmes in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

“There was a time when our biggest challenge was getting children to school. That has changed. The challenge is deteriorating education quality. If a child can’t read, there is no point in handing him a class 6 text book,” said Shah.

According to the reports from the Haryana experiment, reading capabilities of students improved after they were divided in groups based on learning levels and not age or the class they were in.

Some educationists, however, remain sceptical.

“The way the baseline assessment has been conducted is problematic. The government decides what a child’s learning ability is based on just four questions. It violates the Right to Education Act that says children cannot be discriminated against,” said Anita Rampal, professor of elementary and social education at Delhi University.

Others point out how checks and balances within the Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation have been ignored.

“Children cannot be termed slow learners by testing them on lesser known set of books. In class 6, children are still growing. That is the rationale behind introducing the no-detention policy up to class 8. You cannot divide children based on the marks scored in summative assessments. This is like bringing CBSE down to Class 6,” said Janaki Rajan, former head of the State Council of Educational Research and Training.

Shah, however, believes that the success of the programme lies in its implementation.

“The materials that are used to teach children are a key component of intervention. Teachers and school systems will also have to embrace change,” he said.