Biggest challenge for Indian education system depends on private players, says Manish Sisodia

The biggest challenge for the Indian education system is its dependence on private players and deteriorating quality of the government schools, Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the media at the Asian Summit on Education and Skills (ASES), he said training of teachers and winning the trust of the public can play a crucial role in improving the situation.

"The biggest challenge before Delhi, and also India, is that our education system is heavily private dependent. The quality of education in our government schools has deteriorated as we were not able to maintain it.

"The solution to this will be maintaining the quality of education in government schools and building faith among the public, as the public lacks faith in the system. Teachers' training can also play a major role in this regard as education starts with the teacher and ends with him," he said,

ASES, the global annual meeting of ministers bringing insights of leading education pioneers, policymakers and education experts from Asia, has representatives from 15 countries this time.

"Programmes like these may not make straight changes but help in creating awareness and changing mindsets," Aditya Gupta, CEO, India Didactics Association (IDA), told the media.

The theme of ASES this year is "Learning for Tomorrow's World".

Speaking on idea exchange, Sisodia said these platforms play an important role in promoting peer learning among countries and educational institutions.

"There is a great scope of learning from our counterparts such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in various areas of education and training," Sisodia said.

"We have to find innovative ways to make education fun and less burdensome for students. In Delhi, we have already cut down the curriculum by 25 per cent to reduce the burden on students and introduced happy curriculum," he said.