Evaluation report of more than 4,000 Delhi schools still unpublished, DCPCR refuses to respond

The evaluation report of more than 4,041 Delhi schools has not yet been published in the public domain even after five years of its announcement, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. According to a senior official, the report will not have any practical significance now as the evaluated school's situation will be drastically changed now after five years, though the report can be used for academic purposes.

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) had announced the comprehensive evaluation of all city schools in the year 2018. Later in 2019, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia told the media that the evaluation process has been completed and called this evaluation a fresh wave of accountability in the field of education. For this evaluation, the Delhi government granted a budget of around Rs 15 crore through the education department.

For this evaluation, the commission selected the Quality Council of India (QCI) as a System integrator (SI). While announcing this step, DCPCR issued a circular stating that a comprehensive evaluation of city schools will be done on the basis of majorly three themes — safety and security, teaching and learning, community participation and social integration. On the basis of this evaluation, the commission will form a School Development Index (SDI).

Talking to The New Indian Express, a former official of DCPCR said that apart from Delhi government schools, the commission has also done the evaluation of New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and Municipal Corporation of Delhi Schools. As multiple government bodies are associated with this project hence there might be delays from their sides, he said. Adding to this, the pandemic also affected the pace of the evaluation process.

Talking about the significance of his report, Paras Tyagi, Co-Founder of the Centre for Youth Culture Law and Environment (CYCLE) said, "Schools lack various basic infrastructure, this report was to put forth comprehensive data on each school, but despite such large scale effort and transparency supportive government, they just vanished the report in thin air." In this regard, The New Indian Express tried to contact the current DCPCR Chairperson Anurag Kundu, but he did not respond to calls or messages.