NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that Nobel Prize winner Abhijit Banerjee was the inspiration behind the Delhi government’s education reform scheme — Chunauti — to put a check on dropout rate of the students. Congratulating the eminent economist who received the prestigious award on Monday, Kejriwal, said that his government’s work in education which is a “success story” for the government school education had a close link with Banerjee.
“Abhijit Banerjee’s pathbreaking work has benefitted lakhs of children studying in Delhi govt schools. One of our most important education reform Chunauti has transformed govt school classroom teaching. It is based on the model developed by him. Big day for every Indian. His work on poverty alleviation gets highest endorsement (sic),” Kejriwal said in a series of tweets.
The AAP government had introduced the scheme in 2016 seeking to check student dropout rates and improve the quality of education with special focus on the weakest students. The state government also announced a subsequent version of the scheme ‘Chunauti 2018’ under which students from Class 6 to 8 are mapped and their learning levels are enhanced. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also congratulated Banerjee for his work for school education and poor children.
“He worked a lot for the education of poor children, especially those in government schools...those who are lagging behind in their reading level. He is an inspiration for us. I congratulate him and also thank him on behalf of Delhi government,” Sisodia said. Banerjee along with his wife Esther Duflo and economist Michael Kremer won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.
What is the Chunauti scheme?
The plan divides students into groups on the basis of who can read and write Hindi and English, and solve mathematical problems. Based on their learning abilities, they are given special classes, in govt and MCD schools.