Schools of Specialised Excellence welcome first batch of 2,200 students

At the SOSE in Dwarka Sector 19, which specialises in Performing and Visual Arts, a class IX student, Jahnvi, said, “I have a lot of interest in singing and music, and I want to create a career in this field itself, which is why I’ve joined.”

However, she still had some misgivings. “I’m very worried about my future, about what I will do after I complete Class XII? Are there any colleges, universities planned for us by the government where we can pursue our careers in this field we will be specialising in,” she asked.

This batch will be the first in the 20 schools which have been created by converting existing Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas and Schools of Excellence. Each of these schools specialise in one particular domain and is meant for students of classes IX to XII. Of these, 8 specialise in STEM, 5 in Humanities, 5 in ‘High End 21stCentury Skills’ and 2 in Performing and Visual Arts.

Addressing students and their parents, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia referred to the start of these schools as a major step for specialised education.

“Around 70 years ago, the IITs were started. The induction interaction for IIT-Kharagpur was conducted with 224 students. It must have been a big step for the leaders to decide that the country needed specialists… Now, once again, we are talking about specialised education. Today the world has gone forward; it is recognised that not just in higher education, but it is necessary for us to give specialised education in school. It has been believed so far that in schools, kids should be given general education, and that they can specialise after entering higher education,” he said.

These schools will be affiliated to the Delhi Board of School Education, and International Baccalaureate curriculum will be taught in them. Some parents and students had questions regarding this.

Gauri, a student at SOSE Surajmal Vihar, asked Sisodia out of curiosity, “We already have so many boards like CBSE and ICSE. Why do we need to create a special board for SOSE schools?”

A parent at the Kalkaji school also wanted to know the ways in which the IB curriculum would help his child.

While Sisodia did not respond to queries raised by students and parents during the interaction, he said, “You have not come here just to seek a career. A career will be a by-product. I don’t know what you’ll be doing when you leave school. But my guarantee is that you will have a lot of self-belief… Parents, don’t just look at where your child will go after class XII. Look at what they will become after class XII. We will be looking for only one thing: whether they will believe in themselves. It is our responsibility that the children who leave these schools do so with ‘out-of-the-box thinking’”.