Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Deputy Manish Sisodia felicitated and awarded 87 teachers in various categories for their “selfless service and rigorous efforts in making qualitative changes in the education system in Delhi and shaping the future”, on the occasion of Teachers’ Day.
Addressing a gathering of principals and teachers at Thyagaraj Stadium, Mr. Kejriwal said, “Till 1830, before the introduction of British Education System, teaching was the most sought-after profession in India. The Delhi government plans to revive that unique system in the Capital to ensure that the creamy layer of the society will take up the profession.”
The CM said that the biggest mission for the Delhi government was to fix government schools and that they have managed to do so only because of the support from teachers and principals.
“We have reached a point where government schools are just as good, if not better than private schools. We have transformed the entire environment of government schools,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
Competitive edge
He said that over the past year and a half, the government was working on providing students with a competitive edge when it comes to entrance examinations.
“I realised that coaching for competitive exams today costs ₹1 lakh to ₹1.5 lakh. Despite government schools becoming better, when it comes to competing with children from rich families with money to pay for expensive coaching institutes, poor children often lag behind. To change this, we launched the free coaching scheme,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
He added that the Jai Bhim Mukhymantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana had been successful in bridging the gap between rich and poor that it has been expanded to general and OBC categories as well. “If any child in Delhi wants to go to an IIT, then the lack of resources should never come in the way of them seizing that opportunity,” said the Chief Minister.
In his address, Mr. Sisodia said that the most important factor behind the revolutionary ‘Delhi Education Model’ is taking the teachers and the principals into confidence, in order to improve the infrastructure and the learning environment in government schools.
