The neighbourhood system may have been devised keeping the child’s need in mind -- so that he or she does not end up travelling long distance to school. But parents say there are not enough quality schools all over the city.
Even the Ashok Ganguly committee report concedes this and recommended that an educational zoning of the city be conducted within three years to identify areas that do not have enough quality schools.
"It can be said with a fair degree of assurance that several Delhi schools provide education if a very high quality… there are also a very large number of schools which do not provide even a basic minimum of worthwhile education," the report states.
In its report to the Delhi High Court, the Ganguly committee has recommended that government and private agencies involved in providing education in the city pay attention to the availability of quality schooling.
"If you have a school map of Delhi, you can open a school instead of a mall wherever the land and requirement exists. In south Delhi, for instance, there is a concentration of private schools and more want to open.
"But the neighbourhood scheme will be successful only if the government-run schools also provide education of a comparable quality and there is a fair distribution of private schools,” said Ashok Ganguly, CBSE chairman who headed the HC committee.
The report also recommends that private initiative to open schools in areas that have a lower concentration of schools should be encouraged by the government.
"The stress is also on education at an affordable cost,” said Ganguly. Ganguly also says that the feedback received from parents by the committee set up by the high court was overwhelmingly in favour of the adoption of a neighbourhood policy in nursery admission. "Over 90 per cent of the respondents wanted it which cannot be overlooked," he said.
The report also recommends that private initiative to open schools in areas that have a lower concentration of schools should be encouraged by the government.
"The stress is also on education at an affordable cost,” said Ganguly. Ganguly also says that the feedback received from parents by the committee set up by the high court was overwhelmingly in favour of the adoption of a neighbourhood policy in nursery admission. "Over 90 per cent of the respondents wanted it which cannot be overlooked," he said.
Although the new specifications only apply to nursery schools at present, but the report suggests that this can be implemented in other classes as well in a phased manner. "We can take a period of 10 years and make the changes slowly. The improvement will finally manifest as a common school system," said Ganguly.
anuradha.mukherjee@hindustantimes.com