Photo: Prakhar Pandey
The Department of Education has chosen five government schools in Gurgaon as Model Schools. The Model School scheme aims to provide quality education to talented rural children through the setting up of 6,000 Model Schools across the country (one school per Block) as benchmarks of excellence. The Model School’s mission is to provide a true alternative for parents who realise that their children need a comprehensive educational program within a humanistic developmental environment. The scheme has the following objectives:
- To have at least one good quality Senior Secondary school in every Block of the country
- The institution must be open to innovations in curriculum and pedagogy
- The institution must be a role model in infrastructure, curriculum, evaluation and school governance.
The five Gurgaon schools chosen by the Education department are the government schools in Islampur, Chakarpur, Bhim Nagar, Sector 47 and Kadipur.
Principal of the Islampur School says, “The government schools will be ‘modified’ into Model schools for the benefit of the students and staff. Our challenging aim is to raise the standard of the education holistically, while also increasing the number of students and teachers, so that more can benefit from the new system. We will also ensure that our teachers are more effectively trained, by SCERT, for the betterment of our students.” The School is also adopting newer technologies for creating a better environment of learning. For example, overhead projectors have been installed in Classes VI to X.
The Principal of Bheem Nagar School, Indira Yadav says, “Our selection would primarily have been due to the presence of a large number of underprivileged students in the area. The government’s intention is also to ensure that the Model Schools are able to cater to the less privileged sections of society,” she says. She sees this decision of the Education department as a silver lining for the School. “The Model School status will be a boon. Our School lacks proper infrastructure and we are now hopeful that the State Education department will help us improve it, as also the education system. This will benefit a large number of children in the area. The Model School scheme would help build the necessary platform for raising the quality of education in government schools,“ she says.
Principal of the Kadipur government school, Munni Ram, expressing satisfaction at being chosen as a Model School, feels that this decision will make such schools more competitive and help bring them at par with the private schools even in the quality of education. “The new system will also help develop quality teachers, which will even attract children from more ‘well off’ homes. The admissions can be transparently conducted online, ” he says. “Of course the infrastructure would vastly improve,” he adds. Rana is proud that his School even today produces quality students, who are good at both academics and sports. In order to make the students more competitive, the School has decided to invite specialists for lectures. “With better quality teachers, as planned under the Model Schools scheme, the School would be able to develop even better quality students in future,” he says.
District Elementary Education Officer (DEEO) of Gurgaon, Ms Kaushik, states that the Model Schools have been chosen quite randomly in this first phase, as it is a part of the experiment to see how this new system evolves. “We had an extensive meeting with the principals of the five schools, and the development of quality education was discussed with them extensively. The schools have been given the freedom to express themselves and suggest measures that will improve the overall education system. The Model Schools will also inculcate sports and vocational training, which will give the children better exposure and opportunities for their future,” she says.
Ms Kaushik adds that dedicated professionals have been recruited to help make the proposed Model School curriculum ‘come alive’ in the chosen schools. “We are hopeful that this staff team will provide good instruction, guidance and supervision, and ensure that the educational activities and recreation for young children take place in a well prepared, humanistic and developmentally appropriate learning environment,” she concludes.
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