EDMC to teach parents of schoolkids for free

Realising that teachers alone cannot make changes in the learning of first generation students, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has decided to educate their parents. The Corporation on Thursday passed a resolution to rope in retired teachers on a voluntarily basis to teach parents at EDMC schools.

As per the resolution, the Corporation will conduct classes for parents during the evening daily. 

The civic body will first prepare a list of parents, whose children are studying in its schools. The parents will be asked to fill in a form, where they will have to declare their educational qualification and other details. 

Then, the parents will be invited to attend a meeting similar to the ‘Parent Teacher Meet’ (PTM), where they will be made aware of the plan. Those interested will be enrolled at nearby school and will be provided free education. 

The plan will be implemented in several phases. In the initial phase, the facility will be provided in at least one school in each ward under the Corporation.

EDMC officials said: “Nearly 2.25 lakh students get free education in EDMC schools. Parents of around 1.5 lakh students are either illiterate or have just studied till senior secondary. Our emphasis will be to provide education to them at the facility and tell them about the importance of education. To achieve the goal, we have been forming a group of retired MCD teachers who will provide free classes.”

Jitender Chaudhary, chairman of SDMC’s Standing Committee, said officials were shortlisting schools that ran in morning shifts. 

“We have a lot of schools which run in one shift. Besides, we have sufficient number of retired teachers, who are willing to teach without any consideration. We aim to educate the parents so they can provide proper guidance to their children. The best part is that the Corporation will not spend a single penny for this cause,” he added.

Notaby, the corporation had earlier decided to end the problem of lack of coaching centres in its area by letting out its schools as coaching institutes. It had claimed that the move would not only check the mushrooming of coaching institutes but also fetch revenue for the cash-strapped EDMC schools.

“Earlier, we had decided to let out schools (for coaching classes) and now we are going to organise classes for parents. With these, we hope to improve the education of people living in trans-Yamuna area,” the chairman said.