The Delhi Model: A Bold New Road Map to Building A Developed India by Jasmine Shah looks into the much-discussed Delhi model, highlighting its transformative impact on education, air-pollution, transportation, electricity, water and health care.
This article is an excerpt from his book published by Penguin Random House India.
Transforming India's Government Schools
India stands at the precipice of an education crisis. For the past seven decades, governments in India have waxed eloquent about the importance of education to building a strong economy and a developed country but few have shown the appetite to put money where their mouth is. It was the Kothari Commission came up with the first National Policy on Education in 1968 that advocated a specific share of public expenditure in India to be allocated to education every year—6 per cent of the GDP. Most recently, the much-celebrated National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) once again advocated this demand, raising hopes that India's education sector will finally turn a page. The reality has been quite the opposite.
Over the past decade, however, the Central government's budgetary spending on education has declined consistently from 4.6 per cent in 2013-14 to 2.9 per cent in 2023-24. As a result, the total public expenditure on education in India as a share of its GDP has ranged between 2.4 per cent to 2.9 per cent throughout the past decade—a far cry from the promised 6 per cent. This steady withdrawal of the Indian state from the education sector has had grave consequences for the government schooling system. The total number of government schools in India have reduced from 11.1 lakh in 2014-15 to 10.2 lakh in 2020-21. Private schools have stepped in to fill this gap, increasing from 2.9 lakh to 3.4 lakh in this period. There is an acute shortage of teachers in government schools with over 8 lakh vacancies remaining to be filled in December 2023.
To its credit, the NEP 2020 is a commendable policy document for it sets right many policy priorities for the first time in India's school education system. It sets the goal of the education system as one that builds character, enabling learners to be ethical, rational, compassionate and caring, while at the same time preparing them for gainful, fulfilling employment. It talks about empowering and providing continuous professional development to teachers and principals. At the pedagogy level too, it talks about moving away from rote pedagogy learning to a more inquiry-driven and experiential learning that promotes critical thinking.
The NEP 2020, however, is a highly flawed policy document, as it fails to connect any of these noble intentions with actions. It describes the what but provides no roadmap as to how states can go about implementing these ideas and, most importantly, where the funds will come from. A beautiful policy without a credible implementation plan is like watching a pretty science fiction film and imagining yourself living in a different world for a few hours, only to discover later that nothing really has changed around you. For this very reason, the NEP 2020 risks being condemned to the dustbin of history just as all other well-meaning education policy documents, beginning 1968, have been.
In contrast, the Delhi education model stands as a real-world policy-cum-implementation model that arguably provides the most realistic roadmap for any Indian state keen on realizing the vision of NEP 2020. Providing an elaborate roadmap for scaling-up the Delhi education model elsewhere is beyond the scope of this book. However, Indian policymakers keen to do so will have to set four key priorities which the AAP government did when it began conceptualizing the Delhi education model and working towards the impossible task of turning around a state-level government school system.
First, there cannot be any conversation about transforming India's government schools without setting aside sizeable budgets. No amount of drafting new policies or giving inspiring speeches will help until our governments marshal the political will to put the required money on the table first. Delhi's experience shows that, even in the national capital, fixing the accumulated deficiencies in our government schools over the past several decades-i.e. building state-of-the-art infrastructure, hiring sufficient teachers, investing in world- class teacher training-required setting aside nearly 25 per cent of the budget consistently for a decade. Many states may not be in a position to set aside huge budgets immediately, but there has to be a commitment to start phasing towards that within two to three years. There are two potential pathways to mobilize these funds.
One, by imposing new taxes like the Central government did, through a 2 per cent education cess in 2004 to fund the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA). The SSA succeeded in considerably expanding the government school infrastructure across India and improving the access to primary education. More recently, the Centre relaxed the fiscal deficit limit under Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act to fund vaccination expenses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Perhaps it’s time to treat the crisis afflicting our government schools with a similar urgency. Second, is to take the path Delhi did. The AAP government did not raise any new taxes; rather it prioritized the needs of the education department above all else. Our state governments need to start budgeting for education the way a middle-class family does: set aside the budget to provide the best quality education for the children first and meet all other needs from what’s left. A bullet train, a coastal expressway, a grand statue etc. can all wait until government schools get their due.
The second priority should be to introduce only those policies that can be implemented at scale. Governments across India love to create islands of excellence and celebrate them endlessly. Kendriya Vidyalayas are one example. The most recent example is the PM-SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India) scheme launched in 2022 by the Narendra Modi government. The scheme aims to develop 14,500 schools across India as model schools at a cost of ₹27,000 core in five years showcasing NEP 2020 in action with no plans for the remaining 99 per cent government schools. In contrast, every intervention under the Delhi education model was introduced with the clear vision of scaling them across all schools in a time-bound manner with the requisite resources aligned for the same—be it infrastructure upgrade or strengthening the SMCs or the business blasters programme.
The third priority should be keeping teachers and principals at the heart of every reform. Inspired and capable teachers are the most important agents of change in any system-wide effort for education reform. Unfortunately, government school systems are too large and bureaucratic and often devalue the role and knowledge of these frontline workers. The AAP government empowered Delhi's teachers and principals in multiple ways, treating them with dignity, care and respect. It has made lasting investments in training them in leadership and behaviour change besides cutting-edge teaching methods.
The fourth priority, often the most ignored one, is actively involving parents in providing holistic education to their children. If the goal of the education system is not just to produce skilled human resources but also to make compassionate, caring and public-spirited citizens, then the role of parents cannot be ignored. Children may spend four to five hours a day in the school, but the remaining time is spent at home. Delhi's mega PTM and School Management Committees (SMCs) had a huge impact in breaking the silos between the two most important stakeholders in a student's life-teachers and parents who helped each other understand what they can do better.
Policy prescriptions aside, the starting point of any such reform effort is strong political will. Reforming state-wide government systems is more complex than any other public institution for the sheer variety of stakeholders involved. Unfortunately, decades of abject neglect has taken the soul out of this very institution that determines the future of half of our children. Bureaucracy alone cannot fix this problem; in fact, they are part of the problem. Inspired political leadership that makes education its topmost priority and engages deeply and honestly with the reform process is the only one that can do this, as Delhi has shown. Most traditional parties are averse to doing this for two simple reasons. Public funds invested in run-of-the-mill infrastructure projects like roads, flyovers etc. lend themselves to easy commissions than hiring more teachers and fixing toilets in government schools. Second, rising demand for private schools benefits political bosses too, who often run these institutions themselves. The ultimate responsibility, therefore, rests with the Indian voter. Only when they start demanding and voting for parties that place education at the top of their political agenda, will things really change.
