BACKGROUND
The Director of Education, being
executive head of schooling system in Delhi, has before him, a
Herculean task of managing around 1000 schools with 40,000 staff to
cater to about 9.5 lakh children with the sole aim to provide
quality education in the government. schools. The sheer extent of
numbers to be provided this facility has its fall out on the effort
required to ensure reasonable level of performance in all schools.
Keeping in view the daunting task ahead a
web based MIS was mooted that was capable of the following:
Accordingly, a Web based IT Plan with
following capabilities was thought of :-
·
It
should capture almost the entire workflow and processes of the
Department and somewhat reengineer them to suit the demands of
modern and efficient work procedure.
·
It
should provide all the information in the required format at the
right time with accuracy to facilitate decision making by the
authorized decision makers.
·
The
mooted IT PLAN should enable, ensure and force the people to use it.
·
It
should make the work so much easier and faster/smoother that people
adopt it willingly even if there is initial resistance in the form
of mental barriers for using an entirely new system.
·
Reduce the burden of routine, repetitive and monotonous works to a
fraction of the original and spare more time to the officials to
indulge in more constructive and creative works.
The web based MIS
was extended in all of the schools that covered all the aspects of
management in the two years 2002-03 and 2004-05.
When the
new Director joined the Department in February 2005, he had even a
more challenging task ahead of him. The challenges were that of
Consolidation,
Fine tuning, Technical Perfection and Institutionalization to take
the programme to the point of no return.
A conceptually
right MIS was in place which won accolades from all corners
including winning Golden Icon Award in 8th National
e-Governance Conference for Exemplary Leadership and best ICT
Achievement of the Year in the New Entrant category. There is no
dearth of fantastic initiatives in the field of e-Governance but
there are very few of them who sustain the test of time and that is
equally if not greater challenge than initiating the programme
itself. There is no denying the fact that putting the MIS into place
was a Herculean task, however the sustainability & continuity of the
same is equally daunting as with change of guard, there are vested
interests who try to scuttle any reforms in the system.
Logical Conclusion
to the existing system by taking New Initiatives
The entire focus
earlier was primarily in Personnel, Office & Finance Management as
it was felt that once the personnel issues were addressed, the staff
can be motivated towards academic reforms.
The IT
initiatives had to be taken to its logical conclusion and for this
the programme was extended to usher in academic reforms touching the
issues directly affect classroom teaching, student performance &
accountability of teachers through interventions such as:-
a.
Computer Aided Learning
in multimedia classrooms.
b.
Online Admission of
Students and tracking their details through issuance of SLC.
c.
Online School
Information including geographical boundaries of a particular
school.
d.
Online Student Feedback
e.
Online Inspections of
Schools.
f.
Online Assessment of
Classroom teaching in respect of each and every teacher.
g.
Online attendance of
Students to check truancy.
Public Interface has become dynamic with any person
in the Capital having direct access to the highest executive i.e.
Minister of Education though ‘Mail to Minister’ Link.
Technical
refinement was initiated through training the Programmers to work on
the N-tier architecture instead of 2-tier architecture implemented
before.
The message was
conveyed to all concerned in no uncertain terms that the programme
is going to be implemented with a renewed zeal and it was going to
be extended to all the areas so far untouched by IT interventions.
And that there was no going back on the reforms already undertaken.
It was also decided that not only should we
institutionalize and consolidate, we should start working in all the
potential areas where maximum gains in real terms are going to
accrue.
The initiatives of ICT undertaken this year include
consolidation & fine tuning of existing Modules such as
·
Finance Module
·
Pay Roll Module
·
Infrastructure Module.
·
Student Module
·
Personnel Information System
·
Transfer Posting Module
·
Court Case Module
·
Vigilance Module
·
MIS Mail
·
Online attendance of Teaching Staff.
and new initiatives under taken are broadly divided
into 4 categories as under:-
-
For Students
i.
Computer Aided Learning
ii.
Computer Education
Project extended to remaining
650 schools.
iii.
Online Student
Management Module
iv.
Online Student Feedback
v.
Computerised I-card
facility for students introduced
-
For Personnel
Management
i.
Transparent online transfers with the employee’s
choice of workplace
ii.
HR Module further fine
tuned.
iii.
E-Service book under
preparation.
iv.
GPF transactions to be
made online shortly.
-
For Office
Management
i.
Online Finance Management – Budget Module
ii.
Online Library
Management System
-
For Public
Interface
i.
Online School
Information System
ii.
‘Mail to Minister’ link
available to all Members of
Public and DoE.
iii. All
the Departmental Orders/Circulars available for
Public online on Department’s Website
www.edudel.nic.in
For Students
1. Computer Aided Learning(CAL) –
What is CAL?
CAL stands for
Computer Aided Learning. It is a method of interactive learning
teaching process in which resources of computer are used to impart
learning to the children.
Vision through CAL
Ø
To
bridge the digital divide between the Rich and the Poor, IT being a
great leveler.
Ø
To
bring the government schools of Delhi at par with the best school in
private domain.
Ø
Comprehensive coverage from basics to the complex formulations of
standard-XII.
Ø
Wide
spectrum of issues like environment Education, Health, Hygiene to be
catered beyond
the routine.
Ø
Areas of social concern like drug related hazards, alcoholism,
harmful effects of smoking etc.
to be integrated with traditional learning.
2.
Computer Education Project(CEP)
Delhi Government has
introduced Computer Education in all the Delhi Government and
Government Aided Schools from Class-VI to Class-XII. For this:
Ø
10/20 Computers Lab is set up in every school.
Ø
2/3
computer teachers provide by the Department per school.
Ø All
the schools under Delhi Government are imparting Computer Education
under Computer
Education Project(CEP).
Ø
Functional Literacy is made available to the children of Class VI to
X.
Ø Computer
Science, Informative Practices and Multimedia are introduced as
elective
subjects in Class XI & XII.
Ø The
children of Government Schools are becoming more oriented towards
job market & this
paves way for their economic empowerment.
3.
Online Student Management System including Online Admission
–
The Online Student
Management System has been developed to administer all the work
processes related to the students right from registration for
admission in Delhi Government Schools till the student leaves the
school by obtaining School Leaving Certificate(SLC). The module
comprises of following major components :
-
Online
Registration and Admission
-
Online
Performance tracking of all the Students including result
analysis.
-
Issuance of
SLC, Marks Sheet and other Certificates to the Students.
-
Online
attendance of students.
5. Health
record of each student.
The Online System
is being used as a very effective tool to ensure the following:
i) Substantial
increase in enrollment.
ii)
Tremendous increase in teaching days by saving time in admission
process.
iii)
Tracking each and every child to check drop out at any stage and
maximise efforts to ensure retention in the educational system
including schools and/or Learning Centres run by NGOs under Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA).
iv)
Creating a massive and accurate database in respect of around
10.5lakhs children studying in Delhi Government Schools on various
parameters. This database acts as a very important decision support
system as various queries can be generated from it for effective and
timely decision making.
v)
Analysing the CBSE Results and pinpointing the shortfalls.
Subsequently, corrective actions are taken by the department to
improve results. One of the major initiatives emanating from this
exercise was organization of seminar for all the Maths Teachers of
Delhi to improve the results.
vi) Optimal
utilisation of resources like infrastructure and rational
distribution of manpower.
vii) All
the children seeking admission in Delhi Government Schools can now
do so without much hassle.
viii) The
entire process is fully transparent and fair.
ix) The
onus of taking admission is shifted from children/parents to the
concerned Schools thereby taking governance at the door steps of the
citizens.
4.
Online Student Feedback
Feed back from
students obtained online regarding the classroom teaching and other
activities of the school.
The component of
feed back from students is designed to take the feed back straight
from the recipients of the educational services provided by the
system. It is the prime input for decision support system upon
which any further corrective action may be initiated.
5.
Online Computerized Student I-card facility
The data available
on the Student Module has facilitated the introduction of online
computerized Student-I card facility whereby all students enrolled
in the Directorate can be issued computer generated I-cards.
For Personnel
Management
Online Transfers
Online Transfer Posting process
has utilized the GIS data to ensure minimum inconvenience to the
employee at the time of transfer. The driving criteria for posting
is distance from residence subject to availability of vacancy.
E-Service Book
Since almost all of the
data regarding employees service record, Bio-Data and Payroll is
already online, very shortly E-Service book is going to be made
mandatory. It’ll automatically integrate orders generated on other
modules specific to the personnel including Pay Fixation, Leave,
Promotion etc. with the e-Service Book.
GPF
Details
Since salary bill is
being prepared online, GPF details already there in the online
database in respect of all Employees. The logical corollary would
be to make GPF sanctions by Head of Department online & subsequently
integrate with withdrawal from GPF Department.
OFFICE MANAGEMENT
Budget Allocation
All the budgeting
and expenditure is maintained online through web based Management
Information System(MIS) of he Department. Salary and other
Expenditure Bills for around 42000 employees working in 929 schools
and 100 branch offices are being generated and processed online
through Finance Module. Budget for all the government schools under
150 heads is also being allocated through this module. Speedy
disposal of cases of GPF and other advance withdrawals are also
possible through this module. Total Expenditure is available in
real time with different schemes wise, month wise and other
details. Through this module lakhs of man-hours are saved,
increasing the accuracy and speed of the administrative work.
File
Track Module
File Movement in
the Department is being done online thereby increasing the
transparency and decreasing the unwanted delays in processing.
MIS
Mail
A web based
internal mailing system is introduced for the employees of
Directorate of Education. Through this all the employees can
interact with any office, branch or individual officer.
Library Management System
The Department has
initiated a gigantic task of indexing all the books of each and
every school library under the Directorate. All school libraries
will be integrated online through library management system thus
giving rise to biggest pool of reference books not only for the
students but also for the teachers. The pool will, perhaps, be the
biggest, if not in India at least in the state of Delhi
A
consolidated pool of reference books, as available with the
Directorate of Education, will give opportunity to the students to
have access to the study material which otherwise is not available
to them due to the financial constraints.
The
details of available reference books in different schools at the
Click of the Mouse will quench the thirst of inquisitive minds.
Students will be encouraged to explore the new ideas, the new fields
which will supplement their routine academic curriculum. This will
broaden the horizon of the tender and developing minds of the
students helping them to become a better human beings and valuable
citizen of the country.
For
Public Interface
Online
School Information Module
-
Availability
of Online real time information regarding all the schools run by
Delhi Government on various fields like location of the school
on the GIS Map, courses offered in different classes, number of
students and names of teachers present on a particular day, the
rank of the school in the entire Directorate in various
examinations like CBSE, CCEP, Common School Exam etc. among
other facts that may be of interest to the common public.
All the
information about the Department, its functioning, facilities,
school information, admission process, latest news, contact
information, various departmental circulars and administrative
orders, school location along with geographical boundaries, is
present on the website of the Department.
Mail
to Minister Link
The facility of Mailing
to the MoE has got a very good response. It is being utilized by
the Hon’ble MoE to gauze public opinion, formulate suitable policies
and address to genuine grievances of the members of the public. It
has facilitated access to the highest functionary of the Executive
within the Department to the common man.
Online Student Feedback Module
Feed back from
students obtained online regarding the classroom teaching and other
activities of the school. |