New Delhi: South Delhi Municipal Corporation's (SDMC) Mega Parent-Teacher Meeting (PTM) in 581 primary schools on Sunday saw an attendance of 78 percent, with parents taking an active interest in the education of their children, raising important points of concern, and looking at what more can be done for the overall development of their wards. The SDMC mega PTM underlined the need to focus on the cognitive development of students in order to sharpen their attitude towards learning and becoming agents of social change who can shape their own future.
Principals of the primary schools informed parents about facilities such as CCTV, Vigyan Clubs, uniform subsidies and other welfare schemes by SDMC, including ones for SC/ST/OBC/ and other minority students. The school heads also asked parents to suggest ways to increase the level of intelligence in the children and make them hard-working and responsible enough to help other weaker children in their class. Teachers also emphasised that parents should inculcate a sense of punctuality in children and not overly criticize them.
Providing feedback to teachers and educators, parents raised important concerns at the PTM. Some spoke of developing a mechanism to keep a running conversation between parents and teachers on educational advances or shortcomings. Some parents reported that their children were showing behavioural changes because of the guidance at the schools. There were also parents who said that teachers should regularly monitor the quality of mid-day meals served to the children and asked that teachers themselves be punctual, so their wards could learn from the example.
SDMC mayor Sunita Kangra visited a number of schools in the Madipur Wards and said, "Valuable suggestions received from the parents will form the bedrock of our zeal to transform students to make them learn about the health safety measures and promote their learning aptitude."
The municipality's Education Committee Chairperson Nandini Sharma also visited schools in Malviya Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, and other areas. Sharma briefed parents on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), which is being amended to protect children from sexual exploitation.