Manish Sisodia coming to Boston for India Conference Feb 10-11, 2018

In just under two years, since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took charge of the Delhi government in February 2015, their performance, despite interference by the centre, has been exemplary. They have especially generated substantial traction in the education and health sectors, attracting  attention worldwide. Its no surprise then, that the deputy chief minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia  has been invited to speak at the India centric Conference in USA called India - Disruptive Innovations, to be held at Harvard Business School  and Harvard Kennedy School, Boston on February 10 and 11, where he will speak on the simple but concentrated efforts they took, to turn Delhi's government schools completely around, positively impacting the lives of almost 16 lakh students. Representatives from other political parties like Suresh Prabhu from the BJP and prominent members of the Indian media like Ravish Kumar will speak at the conference as well.

About a 100 dedicated AAP volunteers, from across USA and Canada, will be sharing space and ideas with Manish Sisodia, who has since taking charge, been recognized as the country's most successful education minister.

Though  Sisodia has been a successful finance minister too, ensuring that the tax revenues went up, after the government reduced indirect taxes to win trust in the industry, the subject he returns to most often is the education system in Delhi. He along with party leader and chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal are of the firm belief that the quickest way to put an end to widespread poverty in the city and country, is by ensuring quality education for the poor children, with which they can make a significant difference in their lives, in one generation alone.

The image one gets of government schools anywhere in the country is of ramshackle buildings, with poor facilities like proper class rooms, badly maintained washrooms if any, hardly any teachers, and poor implementation of midday meals, all contributing to a high dropout amongst students, with most of them failing to exhibit age and grade appropriate  learning .

Things were no any different in Delhi schools when AAP came into power. Sisodia, who has been a school teacher in the past, quickly got to work, allocating  25% of the annual budget, a whopping sum of Rs 11,300 crores and the highest in the country, towards education alone.

Though AAP has been constantly dead locked with the Lieutenant Governor, over allotment of lands to build new schools, there was no force stopping them from turning the existing ones around.

Their biggest success came from forming the School Management Committees (SMC), which is mandatory according to the providions of the Right to Education Act 2009, but which was either defunct or non existent before Sisodia took charge. The SMC's which is a simple concept of involving both the parents and the teachers in the student's welfare, thereby making them  equally accountable, has been so successful that  a team from Harvard university,  is studying the impact of it.

One of the biggest concerns of these schools was that 50% of the students of the 1024 government schools dropped out in the 9th grade, or held back. Almost 9.5 lakh students from 6th to 9th grades too lacked the requisite grade level competence in the languages and maths. These students were segrated into smaller groups, guided by a teacher, who focussed on improving reading and writing abilities, on par with their grades, all of which was constantly monitored. All this produced results soon enough, with more students clearing their tenth standard than ever before, while students in the lesser grades, gained increased competence in their core subjects.

Original article written by: Vijaylakshmi Nadar