Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday said that the government has allocated ₹15,815 crore for the education sector which is 24.33 % of the total budget keeping with the ‘Kejriwal Model of Governance’ which guaranteed quality education to all children by continuously investing a quarter of its total budget on education.
He said that the government will be setting up its own education board with an objective to focus on understanding and learning rather scoring marks by rote learning so that they prepare themselves for the possible challenges of the upcoming world.
The government, among other measures, has planned to convert all the classrooms from Classes IX to XII to hi-tech digital classrooms and build 17 new school buildings at a cost of ₹75 crore in 2020-21. It has also proposed to add five more schools of excellence in each zone, with an emphasis on excellence in any one particular subject, such as Science and Technology or Commerce or Arts or in the field of sports or vocational courses.
Number of initiatives
He also proposed a number of initiatives on skill and entrepreneurship development programme, spoken English competencies, patriotic course, with an aim for overall development of personality of students to become a good citizen.
Mr. Sisodia announced that a school health scheme will be launched from next year and students will be given a multi-purpose identity card containing detailed health records for which ₹22 crore is proposed. Mr. Sisodia said that the government is mulling joining the PISA Test in 2024. Elaborating on the test, Mr. Sisodia said “This process assesses how well the level of education received by children up to the age of 15 in a country or State meets international standards and needs. About 80 developed and highly developed countries of the world participate in this competition.”
The government also proposed a new law which will ensure “quality early childhood education”, overall development of children in age group of three to six.
Speaking about higher education, Mr. Sisodia said, “There is a provision of ₹20 crore in this budget to start a sports university and ₹15 crore to start Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University. Along with this, there is a proposal of starting Delhi Teachers Education University.”
He added that the construction of the building at the eastern campus of Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University has been completed to a great extent and 1,500 additional students can be admitted to this campus. The construction of Ambedkar University campuses in Dhirpur and Rohini is also likely to start, he added.
