Day 1: 4.5k applicants for govt’s excellence schools

SCHOOL HEADS HAVE BEEN USING VARIOUS WAYS TO COUNSEL EXISTING STUDENTS AND MAKE THEM AWARE OF THE NEW STATE BOARD

NEW DELHI: A day after the Delhi government announced a partnership with the International Baccalaureate (IB) for its stateboard, the education department received over 4,500 applications on Day 1 of admission to its 20 Schools of Specialised Excellence (SOSE), which will be among the 30 government schools affiliated to the board in the first phase.

Since existing resource-rich government schools, such as the School of Excellence and the Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, are being converted into 20 SOSES in the first phase, Class 9 and 11 students registered under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in RPVV and SOE will be studying in the SOSE under the CBSE board.

Heads of schools have been using various ways to counsel students and make them aware of the new state board. Ajay Choubey, head of RPVV Hari Nagar, said, “We have been counselling the present batch of Class 9 and 11 students admitted to RPVV under the CBSE board and informing them about the new board. If they wish to switch to the new board, we will ask them to appear for the scheduled aptitude tests.”

However, not all stakeholders are convinced of the government move to convert RPVVS into SOSES. Netra Pal Singh Rathore from RPVV Surajmal Vihar said, “I spoke to several students and they said they would be able to choose a specialisation only after their Class 10 boards, which is how our children are trained to think. Many have also questioned the motive behind reducing the number of science schools, especially when there are fewer science schools than for other streams. Due to the conversion of RPVV to SOSE, the number of science schools has gone down from 20 to eight.”

Deepanshu Jha, a Class 9 student who studies in RPVV Shalimar Bagh, said, “We had a meeting with our science teachers, parents, and the principal who told us about the SOSE that will start in our campus. I don’t want to switch to DBSE now because it is all very new and is working on a trial basis whereas CBSE is a well-established board.”

A senior education department official said, “Even before deciding upon the curriculum, the directorate of education conducted a survey to gauge the response towards these specialised schools. We have been holding talks with stakeholders and will have one more round.”

“As far as science schools are concerned, we are increasing the number of seats because there will be 25 STEM schools in total, of which eight are being established this year and others will be developed in the next phase. Compared to RPVVS, where there was only one section for science stream, there will be three to four sections for science in each SOSE,” said the official.

Several educators teaching in junior classes of these schools are now worried as SOSES are only for students of classes 9 to 12. The official quoted above said, “We have clarified that those students admitted to RPVV and SOE under CBSE board will complete their schooling under the same conditions in which they joined. Since SOSE curriculum also involves common foundational learning, eligible teachers can also move to SOSE.”

On Thursday, the department held the first three-hour workshop on the new curriculum.