Sisodia reviews two projects to develop govt schools as community schools

Sisodia said the government had introduced these programmes in an effort to keep track of the over 16 lakh students enrolled in Delhi government schools.

In order to track the progress and development of each student of Delhi government schools, to bring about “one-to-one mapping”, and to develop public schools as community schools, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Monday reviewed two key initiatives by the education department, a mentorship programme and the parent outreach programme.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. (ANI)

While the Youth For Education (YFE) programme is a voluntary initiative, wherein students pursuing their higher education, working professionals and entrepreneurs may mentor students in Delhi government schools, the Parent Outreach programme aims to build a network of school management committee (SMC) members and ”school mitras” to help other parents.

As a part of its pilot phase, the YFE initiative had roped in around 4,000 mentors this March for giving career guidance to students of 46 schools in east and south-east Delhi. As a part of the second phase, the state education department plans to mobilise about two lakh mentors for around 5.5 lakh class 10 and 12 students of Delhi government schools with each mentor guiding about two to four students.

Pointing to the generation gap between children and parents, Sisodia said it was often difficult for children to find someone attuned to their interests and the best way to help them was to connect them with those who have graduated recently.

The education minister also asked heads of schools to form an alumni group in schools and encourage “localised mentoring.”

“A child might think (s)he wants to get into acting or music or become a police personnel, but our teachers don’t have the bandwidth for handholding every child. However, if we have mentors attached to these children, mentors would be able to talk and guide them, and help them get jobs. We made it happen with 600 students and mentors and they are quite happy. These mentors have become an emotional support for these children,” Sisodia said.

As a part of the parent outreach programme, 560 SMC members have been trained so far along with 41 heads of schools on how to engage in different school activities and connect with the larger school community. Continuing its focus on involving parents in the education of their children, the state government will now work towards building a “supportive environment” and “network of parents”, the minister said.

“The parent outreach programme has been designed with the idea to make changes in how communication takes place between schools, children and parents. The SMC parent network can be used for establishing a better connect by involving the parent community in school activities,” he said.

Awadhesh Kumar Jha, head of Sarvodaya Co-ed Vidyalaya in Sector-8 Rohini, said, “We had taken up both programmes during its pilot phase itself. The parent outreach programme particularly helped us in staying connected to several students during the pandemic. We had provided the school mitras with a list of contact numbers of students following which they reached out to students and their families and brought their problems, if any, to us. It helped us address student concerns. Similarly, connecting our students to those studying technical courses in higher education institutes has inspired our female students to dream bigger.”