Why do you think India still remains a developing nation and not a developed nation, thundered Manish Sisodia, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister, as he addressed an election rally just weeks before the February 8 state assembly election which his Aam Admi Party (AAP) , or the Common Man party, won after inflicting a crushing defeat on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Though the results of the local elections have little bearing at the national level, the fact that Modi lost in the seat of national power was a clear indication that his once unassailable popularity had been dented. And the man whose draw proved spectacularly superior to Modi was Arvind Kejriwal, the "populist" Chief Minister of Delhi, who went to the polls on the plank of good governance - he called it the "politics of performance" - and received a ringing endorsement from the 20 million people of Delhi. And at the top  of AAP's 'report card', which was distributed widely by his party activists, was its performance in the education field. At a time when governments in India - federal or state - do not spend more 10 percent of their budget on education, the AAP government spent an incredible 26 percent on it, arguing that unless education was improved for 95 percent of the capital's students who were not privileged or rich enough to go to expensive private schools with their skyrocketing fee structure, the country would remain in the 'developing' category for ever.
 
Even as BJP's hyper nationalism got shriller and jingoistic by the day, that included painting all protesters against its policies as "agents of Pakistan" or "anarchists who deserved to be shot" or, worse, "rapists and killers",  and even branding Chief Minister Kejriwal as a 'terrorist',  the AAP stuck to its nose-to-the-ground development agenda and said the voter of Delhi should cast their vote for those who worked for the human development and progress of the people of Delhi. The AAP's  manifesto sought to fulfil the average citizen's aspirations for a good quality of life  with free and accesible  basic medical care, quality education for their children, more disposable income for families with cheap electricity and water, and free bus rides for women, which was now being extended to students. And one thing that really tilted the scales was the "education revolution" that is now earning international attention. 
 
For years Delhi government schools were known for their indifferent pedagogy, rundown buildings, large dropout percentages and were synonymous with all that was wrong with the country's public-sector education system.  Then the AAP government, realising that only populism could not fetch for them their political goals, got down to doing something on the core human development front - education and health. And what they did on the education front over the last years is considered pivotal and has been hailed as the "Delhi education model". Their model is not only now being emulated by other Indian states, but other countries as well, including Afghanistan, whose ministers were sent to Delhi to study it.. Delhi teachers, underpaid and non-performing till then, suddenly got due importance, with many of them being sent for advanced training to Cambridge University, UK, Finland and Singapore on government expense in order to familiarise them with the best of international education besides giving them much-needed global exposure.
 
Besides upgrading crumbling school infrastructure, constructing gleaming new school buildings, SMART classes, swimming pools, libraries, vocational laboratories that government schools had never seen, it also introduced innovative and job-oriented subjects in the school curriculum like retail, travel and tourism, information  technology, beauty and wellness, financial market, management, entrepreneurship and security. Also introduced was a happiness curriculum which, in the words of Sisodia, was "a scientifically designed course that will prove to be very helpful in keeping children’s mind focused on work, helping them in living harmoniously with family and society and, most importantly, develop a holistic outlook and perspective on life." The curriculum has been praised by the Dalai Lama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner., who said such a curriculum was  "needed to deal with destructive emotions in the world” and "what is being started in Delhi schools can have an impact on the whole world.”  India's newest Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee lauded Delhi government schools for "outperforming" their private peers. And, to top it all, USA First Lady Melania Trump was set to visit a Delhi government school next week to witness a "happiness class",  giving the AAP government's educational reform an enviable recognition from the world's most powerful nation. 

"I believe that education is the single most important factor which can bring families out of vicious cycles of poverty, which can change the way a generation demands its rights, which can lead to progress in the true sense of the word. When a government spends on education, it is not just providing a service but also investing in the future of the country,' said Chief Minister Kejriwal. 
 
At the heart of Delhi’s education model are the school management committees (SMCs), mandated under the Right to Education Act legislated by the previous UPA government that made education 'free and compulsory' for all 6 - 14 year old children.   This committee comprises parents and teachers and is designed for stakeholders to feel a ‘sense of ownership’ towards the school. For the first time, these government schools have started holding parent-teacher meetings, giving parents, most of them from very modest backgrounds, a sense of involvement in their's child's education. 

The AAP has been criticised by its political rivals for perpetuating a "culture of freebies" that is economically unviable for any government in the long term. To that Kejriwal retorts that the "best things in life, like water and air, are free". His deputy, Sisodia, rationalised by explaining that the government had indeed been able to build up surplus revenue by plugging tax loopholes that enabled them to virtually double the government's budget from that of the previous administration. 

When Kejriwal's AAP stormed to power in Delhi for the first time in 2013, the elite were prepared to write him off as another political upstart whose choice of election symbol of a 'jharu' - a broom to sweep away the Augean stables of  corruption - was met with sneering disdain. But the lesser privileged, after years of being cynical about political promises, began believing in this youngish IIT-educated tax official turned politial newbie because of his simplicity, plain-speaking on burning issues and his total identification with the everyday travails of the citizen. For the first time in this country a party went to the polls on an education platform, proudly telling people they should judge them by their delivery and not on their promises. 

People are now seeing in AAP a party that is "politically inspirational", as "agents of change", and as a "a turning point in the history of India". Kejriwal has indeed managed to infuse into the national discourse a politics of hope that has trumped not only the politics of hate but, in many ways, reversed some of the cynicism of the middle and working classes about politicians, at least in the national capital. It has fired the imagination of thousands of young people and their parents from poor and working class backgrounds who have begun believing that their dreams may be achievable. "Quality education is of utmost importance to improve the quality of life,” said the Delhi education minister. Its a dream that millions want to share with him and his government - not only in Delhi but across the country -  if it is only able to deliver in the next five years on what it has set out to do.
 
(The writer is President, SPS)