Dwarka gets first ‘school of excellence’

NEW DELHI: Fulfilling the promise made in last year’s budget, Delhi government initiated the fourth category of government schools with deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia inaugurating the first of the five ‘Schools of Excellence’ in Sector 22 of Dwarka on Saturday. The government has touted these new schools as able to “bring government schools at par with private schools”.
Assured of the best of infrastructure facilities, these new schools will impart education through the English language from the primary level, unlike in the government’s Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas, Sarvodaya Vidyalayas and Rajkiya Vidyalayas.
Sisodia said that the concept behind the schools of excellent was “not just to build a new building, but a new system altogether”. He claimed that these schools would aspire to become “an ideal school with better teaching aspects, including teaching pattern and seating arrangements”. With well-furnished and spacious classrooms, facilities for extra-curricular activities, including a sports room, arts room and playground, the school of excellence would be an ideal institution.

When announcing the plan for such schools last December, Sisodia had said each would likely have a student strength of around 1,245. It is the government’s vision, he said, to have at least one school of this format in each of the 29 zones of the city. The admission is to be neighbourhood-based.
Sisodia also inaugurated a Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya in Dwarka Sector 19 on Saturday. He said RPVVs were meant for meritorious students, who would be picked from other government schools to be nurtured here. He promised “an RPVV for every zone…so parents need not send their children to distant schools”.
The minister also assured the parents assembled that the government would set up RPVVs for students who are achievers in the fields of arts and sports. Thanking the engineers for the “quick work” on the school, the deputy CM pointed up and declared that “no one could have imagined a government school could have such a high ceiling”.
He also elaborated on the recently announced ‘happiness curriculum’ to the parents. “The students, through a number of activities, will be trained to become happy,” he said.
As for the regularisation of teachers in some schools, an issue on which the deputy CM and lieutenant governor are at loggerheads, Sisodia said the matter was in court, but he was confident of a solution soon.