Clean toilets, inspired teachers: How India's capital New Delhi is fixing its schools

NEW DELHI - Pradeep Paswan used to skip school for weeks, sometimes months. His classrooms with tin ceilings were baking hot in the summer. The bathrooms were filthy.

The Aam Aadmi Party rose to power in Delhi on the promise to improve basic services: health, electricity, water and education. The party's leader, Arvind Kejriwal, who became Delhi's chief minister in 2015, said he wanted to"revamp" the system to a point where government ministers would feel comfortable sending their children to public schools.

Almost 100 per cent of students who appeared for their final high school examinations last year passed, compared to 87 per cent who appeared in 2012, according to data from the Delhi government. And other state governments, including Telangana and Tamil Nadu, are now pushing to adopt"the Delhi model".

The government enlisted private companies to clean hundreds of schools. It hired retired defence personnel as"estate managers" who oversaw repairs. The estate managers freed up school principals to focus on academic work. In 2016, the Delhi government set up school management committees, groups of parents, teachers and local officials that provided a platform for airing concerns and holding the government accountable.

In the summer of 2016, the government held training sessions with more than 25,000 teachers. In addition to the usual subject-matter training, it selected teachers from within the public school system to offer training on the basics of teaching. "We got exposure, and I got more confidence," said Atul Kumar, who attended a week-long training session in London.

Aside from regular subjects, the students learn gardening and how to be happy and mindful, part of an effort to promote"humane values" and de-emphasise rote learning.

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