Book review: The Case for Systemic Educational Reform

Can fixing infrastructure alone improve public education?

In a review of Yamini Aiyar's Lessons in State Capacity from Delhi's Schools (Oxford University Press, 2024), Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta examines what Delhi's school reforms under the AAP government from 2015 onwards can teach us about systemic change in education. An important question emerges: does real progress require more than fragmented fixes or even well-intentioned first steps like infrastructure?

This article explores why curriculum reform and decentralisation, not piecemeal efforts, are essential for sustainable change, and why teachers' voices must be at the centre of any reform. It also looks at how good intentions alone can go wrong, from ability-based segregation of children to CCTV monitoring of classrooms. A thought-provoking read on the intersection of education policy, state capacity, and the real meaning of learning.

Image source: The India Forum (reproduced from the original article).

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Uma Mahadevan-Dasgupta is the Development Commissioner & Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj, Government of Karnataka, and a Board Member of PAC.

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