When 20-year-old Kartik Shokeen made it to the prestigious Hansraj College of Delhi University (DU), the celebrations of his achievement were short-lived. Recalling that moment, Shokeen said, “At that time, I was looking forward to an enjoyable college life, however, three months later, most of my time is now wasted commuting from my home to college and back.”
Residing in the south-west Delhi neighbourhood of Najafgarh’s Dhinchaun Kalan Village Kartik added, “My college is around 23 km from my house. To reach there, I have to change the metro at two stations. More than three hours of my day get wasted in commuting solely.”Similar to Kartik, hundreds of pupils in Delhi’s outlying districts struggle to attend colleges because there aren’t any transportation options nearby.
21-year-old Nikita is one of the thousands of students who have chosen open learning education over attending Delhi University because it was closer to her home. Nikita’s elder brother Gaurav Yadav, who is a student of Motilal Nehru College, south campus, DU said, “My college is about 35 km from my house; on an average, five hours are lost each day travelling this distance. Seeing me struggle daily, my sister chose against attending DU colleges because it would waste a significant amount of time just on commute.”
Apart from the time lost, this also has an impact on student’s education as there is little time left to review and study at home or even take part in extracurricular activities. “I leave for college at 7am and to get home before dawn, I typically leave campus by 5pm. Not only this has prevented me from taking part in any social events but has also caused me to become isolated from my peer groups, which is one of the quintessential aspects of college life,” Kartik said. “Most of the students who live on the outskirts of the capital city are now opting for colleges in nearby state Haryana as they are closer to their home in comparison to the south and north campus colleges,” said a local.
Poor infrastructure hurting education
In terms of education infrastructure, rural Delhi is still a far cry from the other regions of the Capital. Apart from the north and south campus, which are known as the nucleus of Delhi University, there are a dozen off-campus colleges affiliated with University but the main deterrents to students enrolling in these colleges are infrastructure and education quality.
A local explaining the inadequate facilities of rural schools stated, “In August 2022, a female student of a government school in Nangloi, outside of Delhi, was hurt after the ceiling fan in her classroom fell on her head. The situation is deplorable in all schools in rural areas.”
Most of the institutes in rural Delhi are not fit to conduct classes. Katewara village of Bawana, outer-North Delhi, which was in the news recently after the whole village boycott the MCD election in protest of government apathy towards village development, is the epitome of the crumbling education infrastructure of rural Delhi.
The head of the Delhi Parents Association, Aparjita Gautam, blamed the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government for the deplorable condition of the schools. She claimed that although the government consistently makes extravagant claims regarding better education, the truth is quite different if you visit any government school in Delhi.
According to Krishan Kumar, a resident of Katewara village, “The teachers are not coming to classrooms. The government has moved the teachers to the main city schools. Merely two-three teachers are present to educate the children,” said Krishan.
“There are barely any Delhi government schools adhering to the Supreme Court recommendation given in the Pradyuman case. Recently, we all have read the news that a student stabbed a teacher but the government patched up the issue by asking the stakeholders for their recommendation,” said Aparjita Gautam.
After the gruesome killing of Pradyuman, a class II student of the high-profile school, the court on November 2017 directed a set of guidelines for the safety of all schools, added Aparjita.Jitendra Yadav, a native of Jhuljhuli village, enrolled his daughter in the same government school which he had attended twenty years ago, but he claims that nothing has changed in educational environment and infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the development of parks and sports facilities on sizable unoccupied plots at government schools has also been urged by residents of various localities in southwest Delhi. They have also sought an NGO for assistance.
“The vacant land in the school area is enough to create sports & other facilities for. The kind of response by the administration to our letter shows the biasness towards villages,” said Paras Tyagi, co-founder of the Centre for Youth Culture Law and Environment (CYCLE). Several government schools in the district, largely in the rural belt, only utilise a small percentage of the land, spread over several acres. Only one of the five schools in the survey had facilities that are in use.
The school in Chumanhera now has a hockey astro turf. The school building occupies roughly 0.8 acres of the 6.44 acres of total land,the hockey field takes over 2 acres, and the remaining space is unoccupied. In the school in Malkapur, there are over 4 acres of undeveloped land.
Short on staff
Given the numerous openings for teachers and principals, Delhi’s government schools are severely short on staff. According to data of the Directorate of Education (DoE), only 154 of the 950 sanctioned principal positions have been filled, bringing the vacancy proportion to 83.7 per cent.
The majority of these schools are currently led by vice principals. The shortage persists since about 34 per cent of vice principal positions are also vacant. There are about 65,000 authorised teaching positions that have not yet been filled. Over 20,000 guest teachers have been hired in an effort to close the gap or lessen it.
Last-mile connectivity
There is also a significant problem with transportation connectivity in the area, forcing the children to walk several kilometres to reach school. In addition to school quality and facilities, Kumar claimed that poor transportation connections are the main cause of the educational gap between Delhi village children and city children. Considering the last-mile connectivity a major issue, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday had announced the introduction of 1,500 e-scooters that will be available for self-driving in public places.
The CM had said, “We are going to start this as a pilot project with e-scooters in Dwarka. As many as 1,500 e-scooters will be made available at 250 sites within the area. You will have to drive the e-scooter yourself and pay a fare for it; payment can be made through the integrated card that works on buses and the metro. You will be able to pick up an e-scooter from any of the 250 locations and will have to drop it back at any of these locations.”
The e-scooters will be available at high footfall places including metro stations, bus stops, and hospitals. The e-scooter will have a swappable battery and a maximum range of 60 km on a full charge with speed up to 60 kmph.