Delhi to get its own education board by next year: Sisodia
NEWDELHI: A new board of education for Delhi is expected to be operational by next year, however, unlike other states it will not be imposed on government schools, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Sunday.
Sisodia said the board will be in sync with the reforms proposed in the new National Education Policy (NEP) and the focus will be on continuous evaluation and not year-end exams.
“We have recently set up two committees for working on the proposed board as well as curriculum reforms. An ideal situation would be that we make it operational by next year. Initially, around 40 schools will be affiliated to the board, which could be either government or private,” said Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s education minister, in an interview to PTI.
“What happens in other state boards is that the private schools are free to make their choice whether they want to opt for CBSE, ICSE or state board, while government schools follow the state board. We will not impose anything. Affiliation to the state board would be optional for both government and private schools. We want to make the board so enriching and useful, that there is demand for it,” he added.
On July 15, the Delhi government had constituted two committees — Delhi Education
Board Committee and Delhi Curriculum Reform Committee — to work on setting up the state’s own education board. In a statement, the government had said that the first committee will study global best practices in learning assessment, re-imagine current assessment practices and provide a roadmap for an innovative, student-friendly scheme of assessment to be followed by the new board.
The second panel will study globally renowned best practices in curriculum and reforms and recommend what is best suited for Delhi.
Sisodia said the Delhi government is studying the new education policy in detail.
“We have already been working on some of the reforms proposed in it. There are a few anomalies but there are a few good things too. I have told the two committees that our board will be in sync with the national education policy because as a nation we are together but the focus will not be on evaluating students once a year and discouraging rote learning in process,” he said.
Asked about teaching in mother tongue or regional language as proposed by the NEP, Sisodia said, “I totally agree that the medium of instruction should be the home langauge in the initial years so that foundation is strong but I believe it should be limited to foundation years or pre primary stage. Taking it up to Class 5 is not a good idea.”