The government will be opening five Schools of Excellence at Rohini Sector 17, Madanpur Khadar Phase-II, Khichripur, Kalkalji and Dwarka Sector 22, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, announced on Friday.
The Minister said that the schools would provide quality education in English medium and will start functioning by April 2018. He added that the vision of the government is to ensure at least one school of this format in each of the 29 zones of Delhi.
Quality education
The Minister said that, at present, there are three categories of government-run schools: Rajkiya Vidalaya, Sarvodaya Vidalya and Pratibha Vikas Vidalya.
The ‘Schools of Excellence’ will add a fourth category in which there will be three sections: from nursery to Class V with a maximum of 25 students in each section; from Class VI-X, there will be two sections having a maximum of 40 children each; and Class XI and XII, where there will be four sections with a maximum of 40 students each depending on the stream selected.
For 2018-19, admissions will be done from nursery to Class V under the neighbourhood criteria and entrance tests will be conducted for Classes IX and XII for neighbourhood students, said Mr. Sisodia.
The estimated strength in each school will be approximately 1,245 children.
The Delhi Cabinet also approved the Education Department’s proposal for setting up of a world-class Skill Centre at Jonapur village in South Delhi district at an estimated cost of around ₹254 crore.
Skill centre
Mr. Sisodia said that the skill centre would help meet the requirement of skilled manpower in the national capital.
The Jonapur Skill Development Centre will offer courses in hospitality and tourism, retail merchandising, IT & IT-enabled services, accounts banking and finance, food processing, logistics, electronics, production and manufacturing, automobile, and health and wellness.
The government has proposed 500 seats in each of these departments for the duration of one-year course. The courses will be added or replaced as per demand from time to time.
