Delhi parents rely more on tuitions than schools: Study

Over half of the students in Delhi government and municipal schools opt for private tuitions as majority of parents are unhappy with the “quality of education” being provided there, a report has found.

Over half of the students in Delhi government and municipal schools opt for private tuitions as majority of parents are unhappy with the “quality of education” being provided there, a report has found.

The findings are part of Praja Foundation’s ‘First Annual Report on the State of Public School Education in Delhi’ for which 1,709 MCD schools and 1,009 government schools were surveyed. (Mohd Zakir/ HT Photo)

The report by Praja Foundation, a non-partisan organisation, also finds that 45.08% of students enrolled in Class 9 in 2014-15 were not promoted to Class 10. Similarly, 34.61% of students studying in Class 11 were not promoted in 2015-16.

Experts said the reason behind the trend could be that the schools did not want “weaker” students to face external exams after Class 8.

The findings are part of Praja Foundation’s ‘First Annual Report on the State of Public School Education in Delhi’. The foundation surveyed 1,709 MCD schools and 1,009 government schools for the purpose.

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There are 8,18,707 students studying in municipal schools while 14,92,132 students are in Delhi government schools.

“Till Class 8 no student is detained but there is no focus on quality of education. This could be the reason why despite good results as per Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation (CCE), students fail to make it to the next standard once they pass Class 8,” said Milind Mhaske of the foundation.

Mhaske said students have to write exams in Class 10 and Class 12 – the results of which reflect on the performance of the school. “The trend raises serious doubts about the quality of education being given to students,” said Nitai Mehta, foundation’s founder and managing trustee.

The Aam Aadmi Party government’s own survey of its schools had found that nearly half of the over two lakh students in Class 6 cannot read at all.

Read: Half of Class 6 students can’t read

In the last three years, the number of students taking admission in these schools has also dropped by over 1.5 lakh. The report has not looked at whether these students go to private schools or remain out of the education system.

According to the report, a survey of 4,572 households was conducted to find out why people were not happy with public schools. Most of the respondents said sending their child to a state government school or an MCD-run school would “limit avenues for them”.

To improve the quality of education in government schools, the foundation recommended “focus on tracking and improving learning outcomes, increasing teacher and administrative accountability and empowering local communities to participate through school management committees”.