Delhi: Project Buniyaad kicked off to help weak students in south corp schools

After the National Achievement Survey (NAS) found that most Class 3 and 5 students in Delhi’s government and aided schools performed abysmally in science, mathematics and language, the south civic body on Friday launched project ‘Buniyaad’ to help its underperforming students.

The nation-wide survey included nine districts of Delhi, of which south district finished at the bottom. Of the south district schools, 52 schools fall under the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC).

Nearly 50% students studying in Class 3 of government, municipal and aided schools in Delhi were unable to prove that their learning abilities in various subjects, during the NAS, conducted last year. The survey, organised by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), aimed to find out the learning standards of schoolchildren. The average performance of students in Class 3 and 5 in south district for environmental studies, mathematics and language was less than 50%.

Officials from the three municipal corporations said they are finalising the detailed action plan that will be implemented from next academic session. “The purpose of the survey was to understand the gaps in learning at government and government-aided schools. From the results, it was evident that many students studying in Class 3 or Class 5 were not even able to form a sentence or explain the meaning of words from their books,” said an official from East Delhi Municipal Corporation.

“The result of maths and language subjects for Class 3 and 5 students of SDMC were not as per expectations... We have taken these results as a challenge and launched project ‘Buniyaad’ on Friday,” said SDMC mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat.

Even in the southwest district more than half the Class 5 students performed poorly.

Project Buniyaad, which works along the lines of Delhi government’s Chunauti mission, will begin next month with workshops for selected teachers. These teachers will then assess the basic learning status of the students in Class 2 and 4 (in maths and language).

The programme will be implemented with the help of teachers from Sarv Siksha Abhiyan, representatives of NGOs and trainee of Delhi government’s District Institute of Education and Training.

Under Buniyaad, students will be divided into three categories. Those who perform at par will be taken in to the ‘Ujjawal’ group; those who score medium-level marks will be placed in ‘Utkarsh’; and those who are behind their peers will be placed in ‘Udyam’.

“The weak students in last two (Utkarsh and Udyam) categories will be given extra classes in maths, general knowledge and language. We assess them after period of time,” said Meeta Singh, additional commissioner, SDMC.

The SDMC will also put the report of students’ assessment test on its website so senior officials can see track the students’ development.

“So far their results are kept with the class-teachers. This makes it difficult for even the school principal to evaluate the future course of action. The project will help us assess the performance of class-teachers and those who fail to bring good results will face transfer, denied promotions and in extreme cases suspension,” said Singh.

Under the Delhi government’s Chunauti mission, officials had similarly segregated students based on their learning levels into reader and non-reader groups after they found that 74% of Class 6 students could not read a paragraph from their own Hindi textbook, while 46% could not read a simple story prescribed for Class 2 students. Another 8% could not even recognise letters of the Hindi alphabet.

The North and East Corporations are also working on similar plans to improve the basics of their students.

“We will seek the co-operation of parents in the project and will ask them to send their students for classes during summer as well,” said EDMC official. The civic agencies have also decided to take base test of the child at the time of entrance. “The purpose is to understand the level of understanding and giving his/her education accordingly,” a North Corporation official said.