Govt schools compete with their private counterparts

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, May 28

The statistics may not reveal the full picture but several government schools in Delhi are competing with their Public School brethren and doing well. Most of them admit students from the lower socio-economic background and officials of the Education directorate say that their results should be seen in the perspective of their background.

"We have a social responsibility towards education and a liberal policy for enrollment unlike the other schools in the city," says Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely. He said the performance of the students has to be seen within these constraints.

Take for instance the Class XII results of the Rashtriya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV) Shalimar Bagh. The government school has been consistently showing good results ever since it opened in April 2001. Isha Goel scored an aggregate of 91.8 in Commerce percent while Shakun got 91.6 percent in Science. In Arts Reema Jain scored a creditable 90 percent. "Altogether 77 students appeared in Class XII exams and there are 171 distinctions", informed Renu Ralhan, PGT English in the school.

The performance of other RPVVs was equally good. All 14 such schools had a pass percentage of 97.33 percent in Class XII while it was 97 percent in Class X. The number of students who have scored over 90 percent is huge in all these schools. As the government departments act belatedly, they have not yet compiled a list of their toppers. Moreover, none of them are publicising the list of their toppers. "We are attracting students on the basis of our inherent strengths and not on the basis of publicity," said a senior officer of the Education Department.

Lovely says that if the government schools are to be compared with the private schools, RPVV is in no way behind the leading schools. "We have children from underprivileged sections but they have been performing exceedingly well," he said.

In the 653 Higher Secondary government schools, there was a hundred percent pass percentage in 18 schools. In the Class X exams, 8 schools had a 100 percent result. In all, the pass percentage in 150 government schools was above 90 percent. "The number of first divisions in our schools has also increased considerably," said the Education Minister. The figures were still being compiled.

Gaurav Gupta, a student of RPVV Paschim Vihar scored 81 percent despite constraints and a death in the family. His father works for a private firm. "Our teachers took personal interest in the performance of the students and most of us have done well," he said. A proud father V.K. Gupta said that the three monthly fees of Gaurav was only 192. "Despite charging a low fee as compared to the Public Schools, the children have done well," he said.

The monthly tuition fees in most of the government schools has been kept at the bare minimum so that even the poorest of poor can afford them. Officials point out that this is waived and freeship given to a large number of students based on their need. Compare this to the Public Schools where the average monthly tuition fee is around Rs 2000 in addition to a large number of charges making them out of reach for the average lower middle class persons.

"Some of our boys in the evening shift help out their parents in earning livelihood. Moreover, the girls in our schools have to help out in the household chores. With all these constraints, Delhi is practically Number 1 as far as performance of the government school students is concerned," said the Education Minister.

BOX:

Rashtriya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya: These schools are the showcase of the Delhi government. An entrance test is conducted in these schools and admission given only after clearance. As usual, the performance was quite good in all the 14 RPVV schools. A total of 935 students appeared for the Class XII exams and 910 of them passed. The pass percentage was a satisfactory 97.33 percent. The Sarvodaya schools too performed well with 10 of them showing 100 percent pass percentage. (2005)