The Faridabad Education Council (FEC), a multi-layered collective impact initiative; organized a meeting at the Manav Rachna Educational Institutions (MREI) campus today to deliberate upon improving the quality of school education in Faridabad. The deliberations were presided over by Dr. P K Das, Addl. Chief Secretary, Haryana School Education Department in the presence of Dr. Anita Chaudhary, IAS (retd.); Dr. Prashant Bhalla, President, FEC & MREI; Dr. Raj Nehru, VC, Haryana Vishwakarma Skill University; Dr N C Wadhwa, DG, MREI; Dr. M M Kathuria, Trustee, MREI; Mr. Dharmender Singh, ADC; Mr. Satbir Mann, SDM; Mr. Navdeep Chawla, Former President, Faridabad Industries Association; Dr Rakesh Gupta, Chairman, Sarvodaya Hospitals; Dr. Rajiv Chawla, Chairman, I am SME of India; Mr. Arvind Rajnish Vohra, Director, Gionee;  Mr. Narendra Aggarwal, CMD, Shivalik Prints; Mr. S K Jain, MD, Indo Autotech; Mr. Rajiv Mathur, CEO, Skilled India; Mr. Parmod Kumar, Department of School Education, Haryana; Ms. Satender Kaur, DEO; and representatives from the state as well as the private education system.

While sharing the vision of establishing the Faridabad Education Council, Dr. Prashant Bhalla said: “FEC envisions engaging in a meaningful contribution towards the school education system, particularly in rural and government school education. Faridabad Education Council will act as an aggregator and facilitator, and it will be the nodal point for bringing together the stakeholders, members of civil society, and those interested to contribute to the field of education”.

The pioneering Skilling initiatives being implemented in Haryana through ‘TechnoPlanet Labs’ and ‘Skilled India’ were shared during the meeting. It is noteworthy that NSDC & KEDMan SkillEd India Ltd. (a joint venture between Kunskapsskolan Education Sweden AB and Manav Rachna Educational Institutions) has successfully implemented a pilot project across 100 schools in Haryana benefiting around 32,000 students. TechnoPlanet Lab, a venture incubated in Faridabad has been successful in inculcating scientific temper among students.

As a first step, the Faridabad Education Council had engaged Sattva Group to conduct a survey of 315 government schools of Faridabad District. The results of the survey were presented during the meeting. The survey has identified five areas of development: infrastructure, engagement with stakeholders, capacity building of teachers, pedagogy and an optimal learning environment. The Faridabad Education Council shall now be working towards improvement in these areas.

Dr. P K Das appreciated on the initiative. While highlighting the strengths of both the government and the private education sector, he suggested how the two along with the support from the industry could work towards further strengthening the government school education system in Faridabad. He suggested that FEC could support in monitoring, motivating, and capacity building.

The deliberations put forth the need for a huge social change through gradual and consistent efforts. Focus on teacher motivation, recognition, capacity building, creating strategy designed at improving accessibility of education to all, Inculcating ‘Dignity for Labour’, improving the branding and perception of government schools, curriculum development, role of community, monitoring and good management were discussed to bring about a paradigm shift.