An English and education alumna of Himachal University and currently a Ph D scholar of Amity University, Noida, Neetu Kapoor is principal of the Army Public School, Delhi Cantt. 

Are you satisfied with the Union Budget 2018-19 allocation of Rs.85,010 crore for education?

This year’s Union Budget is progressive. I am happy with the special provision made for teacher training. This will have a far-reaching impact on the quality of teachers to the benefit of students. The funds allocated for Diksha, the digital infrastructure for knowledge sharing among teachers, will go a long way in improving the quality of teaching-learning in schools across the country.

What is your solution to the challenge of increasing government regulation of private K-12 education?

The government should restrict itself to policy formulation, resource mobilisation and allocation, and education-friendly regulations through the Union ministry of human resource development. Micromanagement of schools should be left to autonomous education councils headed by educationists, and not by politicians and babus. Moreover, public-private partnerships must be encouraged to mobilise much-needed funds to raise the level of public education. 

What are your Top 5 suggestions for reforming K-12 education?

Revamp teacher education. Teacher education should be the focus of our reforms. We need a strong accreditation process for teacher training institutions to weed out poor quality colleges.

Encourage professional development of teachers. Apart from basic teacher training, there is a need to keep our teachers constantly abreast of the latest developments in education worldwide. They need to be exposed to national as well as international seminars and conferences.

Promote professionalism. Teachers should be involved in activities related only to education and be subject to periodic assessment.

Curriculum renewal. There’s a crying need for renewing school curriculums to substitute obsolete memorisation with creative and discovery-based learning. Moreover, equal weightage should be given to academic, co-curricular and sports education. 

Focus on inclusiveness. Schools should promote class, religion, caste inclusiveness and embrace children with special needs to integrate them into mainstream education.