A survey by industry association Assocham has found that the majority of people who send their children to government schools are “overwhelmingly satisfied” with the performance of the schools.
Improving the performance of government schools has been a high priority for the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi, and the task was taken up by Manish Sisodhia, the No.2 in the party.
“About 60 per cent of all the parents said they are overwhelmingly satisfied with the performance of Delhi government schools on a variety of parameters,” Assocham said.
70 per cent of the respondents said they have seen considerable improvement in the Delhi government schools over the year and credited the present government’s focus and determined attitude in this regard.
In the results of Class XII declared earlier this year, government schools did better than private schools with a pass percentage of 88.3 per cent against 84.2 per cent for private schools.
Many said that they feel there is massive improvement in academic quality and overall performance of their kids as they get more individual attention with technology being brought inside the classrooms, Assocham said.
“Overall, about 30 per cent said that there is significant scope for perking up security apparatus and infrastructure in Delhi government schools,” it added.
The satisfaction level with government schools seems to have been higher than in case of private schools, it added.
Better learning environment for children, small class sizes, better student-teacher ratio, more responsive teachers and administrators, better discipline and frequent parent-teacher interactions are significant reasons cited by majority of parents for sending their wards to public schools.
“Most parents appreciated the government schools’ focus on improving education and holistic development of children unlike their private counterparts most of whom are only concerned about increasing the fees and focussed upon extra curricular activities,” Assocham said.
The corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of ASSOCHAM had interacted with about 5,000 parents whose children are enrolled in Delhi government schools to ascertain their level of satisfaction. Besides, it was also surveyed if there was any improvement in their level of satisfaction over the years or not.
“Adherence to security norms like installing CCTV cameras within the school premises together with deployment of security guards across school campuses are also key reasons as to why parents feel secure in sending their wards to Delhi government schools,” Assocham said.
The survey also highlighted that level of satisfaction was more in parents of elementary-age children compared to parents whose children are in middle or high school.
The ASSOCHAM survey proves that there has been a welcome change in Delhiites perspectives as today they do not hesitate in telling that their kids are studying in government school, Assocham said.
It said that it hopes the policymakers and service providers will take the survey results as feedback to improve services.