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CCTVs and international brands to improve government schools in Delhi?
In a bid to show that serious work is being done, Delhi Government is sending 90 principals to Cambridge for leadership programs. However, what difference would a 10 day course make for principals whose working contexts are entirely different from the UK?
Metros are not faring very well in terms of school education, but Mumbai and Delhi tail the list. It was expected that Delhi would do things differently with the advent of a young political party. It was a given that some mistakes would be made before sense and sanity could be established. In what can only be termed as quantity over quality, the new government is ticking one arcane move after another in a bid to improve schools. First it wished to do away with portions from textbooks in order to make the curriculum more manageable. Now it wants CCTV cameras installed in classrooms across schools and some 90 principals are being sent to Cambridge for a 10-day leadership workshop. Though the intention is correct, both ideas lack a rational thinking behind each move.
If CCTVs had the power to raise teaching standards, we would have witnessed a revolution in many schools which have been invested in this technology for more than a decade now. This technology will only give us more of what we already have – control. Neither is the Principals trip to Cambridge going to be a really fruitful one. They will learn that their British counterparts have greater autonomy and freedom while every principal in Delhi whether serving in a government school or private one is constantly controlled by the Directorate.
The discrepancy won’t stop there, while a British principal selects her own teachers; a Delhi principal doesn’t have the liberty to select even the cushion on her chair. No matter how prestigious a private school in Delhi is, its principal cannot direct the school to be open on a day the Directorate wants it closed. In government schools, seniority elects you as a principal as there is no special criterion that entitles you to progress except your age. Administration is regarded there as a professional job, and so is teaching. And every level is equally respected, both in the system and the wider society.
Purportedly, our principals are being sent to Cambridge for “training”. Given our learning curves, an 8-10 day visit to another country can at best give exposure to a different system, but it can hardly impart any meaningful training that can be retained and reused. Assuming that the British system is better, the trip will provide an opportunity to study the factors that make it better. But a week-long systemic comparison can hardly be justified as training in leadership.
A comparison of entire operating systems isn’t an exercise that can be accomplished in a few days with stellar results. It needs a serious amount of reflection and importantly a similar context. That’s why one wonders whether the Delhi government should have first considered an Indian institution for training school principals before sending them abroad. The decision to opt for offshore trainers does not come as a surprise as in our age patriotism is high but confidence is low. Apart from a lack of trust in our own institutions, there is blind faith in international institutions, especially the ones with names like Cambridge and Oxford.
Rather it would have made more sense to arrange a visit for Delhi’s principals to London. A few of the problems that London faces somewhat mirror those faced in Delhi. Aggressive behaviour is one such problem. The Indian counterparts will have something new to learn when they observe that the British teachers are trained to contain aggression without resorting to physical force. It will also be a novel experience for the principals to note that the British teachers enjoy autonomy in shaping the curriculum despite the changes that have made Britain’s system increasingly test-driven.
It will be sad indeed if our principals return with mixed feelings about progressive practices that have barely begun to make their presence felt in our system. That space is already under threat from CCTV cameras.