To provide free quality education to orphans and students belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Other Backward Classes and minorities, the Delhi Cabinet on Thursday approved setting up of a special residential school for them.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said the opening of residential school was another step in the direction of bringing orphans, SC, OBC and minority students at par with children belonging to the affluent class.
She said the residential school for these categories would be set up in collaboration with the famous Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar. “The Society has been successfully operating a school for thousands of tribal students to provide them free quality education with specially-devised techniques in order to make them educationally forward,” she said.
The school will come up at Isapur in Delhi and impart education to 1,200 students. It will have classes from I to XII. While the age of admission to Class 1 will be six years, the admissions would be in accordance with the EWS specifications on annual family income.
The Delhi Government will bear the cost Rs.5,000 per month per child for five years after which KISS will take care of all the expenses. The Society will operate, maintain and manage the school for a period of 15 years on a no-profit, no-loss basis as per the terms and conditions mentioned in the memorandum of understanding.
The school will have a governing body comprising the Chief Secretary and other Principal Secretaries to take major policy decisions and will be affiliated to CBSE.
In another important decision, Ms. Dikshit said the Cabinet has decided to provide fire safety in all the Delhi Government schools. Earlier a provision was being made in only some of them.
The task has been entrusted to the Public Works Department which will provide fire alarms, fire escape measures and fire fighting measures. As one school has already been declared unsafe and three have been transferred to Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, the PWD will have 441 schools to work on.
The Cabinet has approved a revised estimate of Rs.112.15 crore for the works. Already, the PWD has completed the work in 241 schools and was working in 20 others. It will now take up work in the remaining 180 schools.
