To meet the needs of the increasing population and educational requirements of students in Delhi, Education Minister Kiran Walia on Friday announced that a government appointed panel has approved the opening and running of the second shift by unaided and recognised schools in the city.
After convening a meeting of the Delhi School Education Advisory Board here, the Minister said adequate infrastructure — relating to opening of need based laboratories and recruitment of teachers and staff — would be developed for completing all the requisite modalities.
During the meeting, the recommendations of the sub-committee of the Delhi School Education Advisory Board regarding modalities of allowing second/evening shift in unaided recognised schools were debated and accepted by the Advisory Board.
Prof. Walia said under the Right to Education Act, the Delhi Government is not only improving the existing schooling facilities but will also be providing more schooling to ensure that the enrolled children got adequate educational facilities. Prof. Walia said to meet the ever increasing number of students going for formal education, the greatest challenge was to provide them classrooms with all basic amenities in and in a place like Delhi, which is also catering to the schooling needs of children residing in the satellite townships of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, this has become a real challenge.
“As it is not possible to allow expansion of majority of existing schools, the only possible solution seems to be to go in for optimum utilisation of existing material resources by allowing them to run schools in the second shift also as per their needs.”
Prof. Walia emphasised that school managements will have to ensure that quality of education was not compromised in the new shift and second shift teachers and students did not get step treatment. This would ensure optimum utilisation of school infrastructure, she said.The Minister hoped that this move will help more aspiring parents/children in getting admission to schools of their choice.
