HYDERABAD: Over the last decade, Punjab’s descent into drugs has slowly chipped away at its social and economic structures, shoving its youngsters towards a dark dead end or leaving them to scramble for an air ticket to developed shores.The situation is grim but not irreparable.
Recently, the Punjab School Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains claimed that the Education Department enrolled over one lakh school students during a special admission campaign. According to Bains, the target to enrol one lakh students during this campaign drive was achieved on the very first day.The special admission campaign had begun on Friday, March 10 and on that day, 1,00,298 students were enrolled. This feat wasn’t achieved in a day but it didn’t take several decades either. The education policies in the state are now being driven by data and delivered with precision.
GDi Labs has lent its expertise to the Punjab Government’s mission of bringing children back to schools with the help of historical analysis of enrolment trends to see where the focus areas are. Based on the collected data, campaigns were designed to increase enrolment in schools.
The 1,000 bottom performing schools from 19,000 odd schools in the state were identified and focused on first to push them to perform better, while the top 10 percent schools were asked to share with other schools their best practices to help rest of the schools achieve higher enrolment. The outcomes of each of the govt’s initiative has been systematically documented.
With an aim to use data as a tool for better policy making, GDi has focused on collecting data through events like state-wide mega Parent Teacher Meetings (PTAs), which will later assist in designing policies in the future. GDi created a detailed proposal and took it to the education minister for his thoughts, immediately after coming to know of the state government’s plan of conducting a mega PTA.
A systematic approach to data collection through multiple initiatives like the PTA, helps generate better insights and strengthens public systems. The GDi’s end goal in Punjab is to improve student learning outcomes, building state capacity for departments and for those working in the field.
GDi in the next 4-6 months will support Punjab to create a data driven ecosystem in the state and provide insights on solving the entire value chain from data collection to data visualisation, enabling the state to take data driven actionable decisions.
Decades after the green revolution bore fruit and brought prosperity to the state that is today hailed as the feeding bowl of India, yet another revolution in standing on its doorstep.
