Developing school buildings first objective of Delhi government: Manish Sisodia

NEW DELHI: Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday said the first and foremost objective of the Delhi government was to develop school buildings followed by providing quality training to teachers to improve the classroom experience.

Speaking at a conference -- 'Let's Re-Learn to Assess' organised by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and Delhi Teachers University, Sisodia said the education system will realise its greatest potential only through assessment reform. "It is only through assessment reform that we can help our education system realise its greatest potential. It is the pillar on which the future of quality education stands.

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"Together with the support of Cambridge University Press and Assessments, DBSE which is working on new assessment reforms in Delhi schools will set new milestones," Sisodia said. The conference also held a special session with Tim Oates who is the Group Director of assessment, research and development at Cambridge University Press and Assessment, discussing evolution of strategies closely linked with successful assessment models worldwide.

The assessment trends traversing around central and state boards in India in relation to policy design and strategic implementation were also discussed during the session. "Assessment is a process of getting inside the young person's mind and knowing what they know and understanding what they can do and why they do it. It's really high-quality questions which reveal how somebody is thinking.

"So if we think deeply about what we want a child to answer, then we can curate the questions at each stage of education and then ideate what is the best way of putting those questions and gathering the responses," Tim Oates said. Recently, an MoU was signed between the Delhi Board of School Education and Cambridge University Press and Assessments (CUPA). CUPA will explore avenues to support the Delhi Board of School Education to design curriculum, assessment and teacher training programs that are aligned with the vision and mission of the DBSE.