Edu dept mulls plan to train parents of govt school students

NEW DELHI: In a bid to improve the educational environment of Delhi government school students, the Education Department of the Delhi government is looking to organise workshops for parents of school students.

"Training of parents is very important, as they should understand our goals of teaching," said an Education Department official.

With Rs 13,997 crore, the Delhi government has allocated 26 per cent of its Budget to education this year, which remains higher than the budgetary allocation for education of most states.

The allocation is also higher than that of last year, which saw 23.5 per cent being allocated to the education sector.

Officials said that the government is working on a "trickle up model" of growth, to empower workers and teachers.

School monitoring committees are likely to handle all these workshops, along with the teachers.

According to government officials, the main goal of this project is to give an idea to parents on how they can help their children.

"Children in government schools come from a very poor background and lack motivation from their families. If we can motivate the parents, they can motivate their children," said the official.

This idea came after the successful mega parent-teacher meetings in the Capital. The Delhi government organised mega parent-teacher meetings in its 1,041 schools.

"It is evident that parent-teacher engagement, which the government aims to institutionalise through mega PTMs, has been achieved. We are happy that this exercise, which used to be limited to big private schools, has now become an integral part of the culture at government schools," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had recently said.

He also said that the Delhi government's sustained efforts to improve learning outcomes in government schools cannot succeed without the active participation of parents, adding that regular PTMs have resulted in increased parental attention to children at home and a corresponding improvement in academic performance.

The Aam Aadmi Party-led government also organised PTMs for parents of students in Classes IX to XII.

The government had invited parents to meet with their children's teachers before the Board examination for Classes X and XII and the year-end exams for Classes IX and X.

Talking about the importance of parents in the education system, Sisodia said, "The key to better academic performance lies in effective parent-teacher partnership. After our government initiated the first mega PTM two years ago, PTMs have become a part of the government school experience."