Delhi education: Schools of excellence will have best teachers, only 25 students in a class

Education minister Manish Sisodia inaugurated two new schools in Dwarka on Saturday, including one of the new “schools of excellence” that will start admitting students from the next academic session.

Saumya Gupta, director of education, said the government will start five new English medium “schools of excellence” that will offer classes from Nursery to Class 12, handpicked teachers and up-to-date facilities.

The school of excellence inaugurated in Dwarka Sector 22 has a four-storeyed building sprawling across 6,050 sqm with 34 classrooms, three laboratories, a multi-purpose hall, an art room, a library and a computer room. Four other such schools — one each in Khichripur, Rohini Sector 17, Kalkaji and Phase II JJ Colony in Madanpur Khadar — have been proposed.

“The way we envision it is that the schools of excellence will be in the CBSE’s list of top 100 schools within the next ten years. Every child will compulsorily have to take up two extra-curricular activities and will be taught by handpicked teachers. The student to teacher ratio will be at par with some of the best private schools, with just about 25 students in a class,” Gupta said.

The schools will start functioning from the next academic session, and Gupta said that in the first year, they will admit students from Nursery to Class 2 and in Class 9. Unlike the Rashtriya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas, where high achieving students are admitted through an entrance exam, the only criterion for admission at a school of excellence would be of neighbourhood and the students would be selected by a draw of lots.

“I want the children to grow up in these schools (which is why they are being admitted only to the lower classes). The applications should be out in the next 10 days, and it will be offline. Parents can get a hard copy of the form from the school principals,” said Gupta.

Sisodia said 54 model schools are being piloted by the Delhi government, for which they had fixed existing school’s infrastructure and provided them facilities and resources. But in the new school of excellences, the government was going to “starting from scratch.”

The other school inaugurated by Sisodia on Saturday was a Rashtriya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV) at Dwarka sector 19 on Saturday. Durig inauguration of the school, Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s education minister, said how there is no dearth of “pratibhas” in Delhi.

“We want to build an RPVV in each zone of Delhi. There are students who may be good in music, but not science. A child may not be good in languages, but may be great in sports. I would like a sports pratibha vidyalaya and an art and culture pratibha vidyalaya in each zone,” he said.

Currently, there are 22 RPVVs in Delhi, according to the DoE database.