'Mission Buniyaad' set to monitor school children

NEW DELHI: To monitor the performance of children between Classes 3 and 8, a mentor (teacher) will be appointed to check the learning outcomes of schools run by Delhi government and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

This will be under the new education scheme, ‘Mission Buniyad’ launched by deputy CM Manish Sisodia on Monday.

“Every mentor will be responsible for five schools and will monitor the performance of children between Class 3 and 8,” Mr Sisodia, who is the education minister, said.

Almost half of the students in Delhi, among other states, were below the “age appropriate level” in reading and in basic mathematics and “this big gap has to be bridged with a collective approach,” Mr Sisodia said. “What is the benefit of teaching when they can’t even read their books,” he asked.

Mr Sisodia said that under the new education scheme, teaching coordinators or learning outcomes coordinators would be trained by the state government. “The final shape to the plan was given after several meetings in the Education Department and with the MCDs,” he said.

He also said that in making the scheme successful, the government would need the parents’ support. “I appeal to them to keep an eye on the performance of their kids,” he said.

If the parents found their children’s performance poor, they should make extra efforts, sacrifice the May-June vacations and send them for extra classes to “strengthen their foundation,” the minister added.

Mr Sisodia also said that several meetings have been held with local bodies, the MCD, the NDMC before arriving at the conclusion to kickstart the Mission Buniyad Scheme.

As per the scheme a mentor teacher will be appointed for every five schools in Delhi to access the development of the students.