With government schools excelling in the Central Board of Second Education (CBSE) Class XII exams for the fifth year on the trot, the Delhi government is in a celebratory mood.
"Feeling v proud to announce that the CBSE class 12 result of Delhi govt schools this year is 98% - highest ever so far. It’s historic. Congratulations to my Team Education, all students, teachers, parents, and education officers. Proud of you all," Kejriwal tweeted.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia too took to the social media platform to share his elation. "Over the past 5 years, we at #DelhiGovtSchools have been competing with ourselves to break our own record each time. This year is no exception!" he tweeted.
In the lead up-to 2015 Delhi elections, Kejriwal had promised to make Delhi's government schools better than even private schools when it came to results. Few had taken his assertion very seriously.
But the Delhi government shared how schools have been improving upon their earlier performances. From 2016 to 2020, their pass percentage has shown an upward trend – 85.9, 88.2, 90.6, 94.24, and 98 respectively, they stated.
Explaining Kejriwal's model of education, the Delhi government said there were 10 reasons why the government schools are the best in the country.
The first reason they cite is Delhi’s education budget, which the government says is the highest in the country. It is 25% of the total budget for the past six years, according to them.
Also, they say that in just six years, Delhi's government schools now have more than doubled their number of classrooms - from 17,000 to 37,000.
The other reasons cited by the government were world-class infrastructure, training of teachers in global institutes of repute; direct involvement of the political leadership (Kejriwal personally interacts regularly with children, teachers, and parents of government schools which they claim has helped lift the morale of students); engagement of the country's best talents in education reforms; mega parent-teacher meeting; engagement of ex-army men as estate managers, innovation in teaching and finally, technological intervention like the use of mobile tablets.