Parents keep check on this Delhi school

NEW DELHI: Trilokpuri mums aren't naturally confident when facing figures of authority. But on the last working day of the month, they pore through the registers-attendance of both staff and student, midday meal, funds and expenditure of East Delhi Municipal Corporation School (evening), Block 27, Trilokpuri and with some gentle prodding from local activist Rita Ballav, put their questions to principal Himmat Singh Khampa.
Community intervention in the running of some municipal schools in east Delhi has resulted in better administration.
Khampa, on his part, responds to all questions and allows the team to peek into toilets, enter classrooms, check records of books and scholarship distribution. He's been principal of East Delhi Municipal Corporation School (evening), Block 27, Trilokpuri, since 2011-the same year local NGO JOSH organized locals and volunteers to conduct these inspections-and has faced such questions many times since.
"These visits happen often but different sets of parents come," he says, "It's good to have our shortcomings pointed out and we too seek their help most often in tracking down kids who've been absent for long." Absenteeism is common in Trilokpuri; locals are migrants and move frequently.
The community's cooperation is also necessary for maintaining discipline. "Kids come from outside to play cricket on our grounds. Only the community can help keep them off," says Khampa who heads a school with a roll-strength of 289 and only five teachers-three permanent, two on contract-and can use all the help he can get. "If someone comes, I'll have to get the door myself," he says.
"Principals also ask the community for help in running schools. The principal of number 22 has asked our volunteers if they can help with keeping the premises clean," says Thomas Antony of JOSH. This won't be the first instance of parents and locals collaborating with schools authorities to solve problems. Locals organized the donation of surplus fans from a bank to the school in block 6; had the hand-wash area moved from the drinking water one in block 7; had roof sheets replaced for a tin-roofed school in block 22. NGO workers observe that some problems schools routinely face-theft and property-damage and trespassing-can be solved only with the cooperation of locals.
"We cover 16 schools; eight morning ones, rest evening-shift schools," says Antony. Over 60 parents and about a dozen volunteers had participated in the inspection process of the morning schools on Thursday. However, they have only been able to cover municipal schools and those run by Delhi government are still out-of-bounds. The community members have been allowed access to schools records by a 2011 Central Information Commission order allowing such inspections on the last working day of every month.