New Delhi: Members of the National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) successfully brought their two-day workshop hosted by Centre for Civil Society, in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation to a close this past Thursday at the YMCA in Connaught Place, New Delhi.

The two-day workshop was designed to provide all 45 association delegates representing over 11 states—Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Delhi, Manipur and Himachal Pradesh—and over 5,000 budget private school and low-fee schools, insight on the needs of first generation learners and variables for delivering effective lesson plans to increase student performance.

The workshop was a grand success as NISA members came together and identified themselves collectively as an alliance of budget private school and low-fee school associations across India, working to secure affordable and quality education for marginalised and economically weaker families.

Pritha Ghosh introduced creative classroom management and teaching techniques to boost quality education while Parth J Shah provided guidance on effective and efficient organisation. With these new ideas, NISA members have agreed upon state-organised outreach and advocacy approaches to address issues of feasibility and compliance relating to the recognition norms and 25% reservation under the Right to Education Act (RTE).

In the next six months, with support from Centre for Civil Society, NISA will create its by-laws, consolidate its formal structure at the national, state and district levels, and introduce membership norms and associated fees for participation. Registration and a proper structure should ease efforts for the National Leadership Committee to finalise state-led workshops in four to five states this year. The objective is to promote NISA’s mandate to grow the coalition of budget private school associations and share best practices to enhance teacher-student engagement and improve student performance.

With NISA becoming a growing representation of budget private school and low-fee school associations, current NISA National Coordinator, R.C. Jain, feels confident that the National Leadership Committee and elected state representatives will be able to tackle critical challenges brought forward by the RTE and remove misconceptions and negativity that surround fee-charging schools in India.