Page 12 - Education World September 2021

Education News

DELHI India School Rankings 2021 with
AAP’s education gambit RPVV Sector 10, Dwarka (CBSE

average score 90.97 percent) ranked
second nationwide.
Having discerned that continuous
improvement of teaching-learning
standards in public/government
schools is a vote catching issue, on
March 15 AAP announced its intent
to establish 100 model primary-
secondary (class VI-XII) Schools
of Specialised Excellence (SoSE)
which will absorb the state govern-
ment’s 22 RPVVs and five Schools of
Excellence. Out of these 27 schools,
20 have been converted into class
IX-XII SoSEs with a “strategic
tie-up” with the globally reputed
International Baccalaureate (Ge-
neva) examinations board. These
20 secondary schools are ready to
AAP’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal (right) & education minister Manish Sisodia receive students when campuses
re-open following the current Covid
he aam aadmi party (aap), which cepted that the 1,028 state govern- pandemic lockdown. Their number
has ruled Delhi state since ment schools provide the best educa- will increase to 100 “in the next few
T2015 and took on and bested tion of all public schools because years,” according to government
the BJP in the state legislative elec- as AAP’s election manifesto (2019) spokespersons.
tion of 2020 shortly after the saffron proclaims, it sends its school teach- Unlike normative secondary-high-
party had swept to power in General ers to “coveted institutes in Finland, er secondary institutions, SoSEs will
Election 2019, is perhaps the sole Singapore and United Kingdom” admit students who pass its entrance
political formation countrywide that for training; it has launched special test, into one of five specialised
believes provision of high-quality initiatives to improve foundational (classes IX-XII) domains — science,
school education is a vote-catching literacy and numeracy; introduced technology, engineering and maths
issue. During its six years in office, a unique happiness period and (STEM); performing and visual
the AAP government has consistently entrepreneurship curriculum and arts; humanities and “high-end 21st
allocated 20-25 percent of its annual established parents-dominated century skills”. Partly modelled on
budget to improve, upgrade and en- School Management Committees the country’s 661 highly successful
hance the learning outcomes of the (SMCs) mandated under s.21 (1) of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas which
1.5 million children enrolled in its the RTE Act, 2009. Moreover, the provide free-of-charge residential
1,028 state government schools. AAP leadership insists that its 22 education to meritorious rural stu-
It’s pertinent to note that the Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas dents, the Delhi state government’s
governance structure of Delhi is con- (RPVV) — classes VI-XII schools — SoSEs will in effect nurture gifted
fusing and complex. Established as and five (K-12) Schools of Excellence students from socio-economically
a state of the Indian Union in 1991, (estb.2018) whose students write the underprivileged households.
it is simultaneously governed by the national CBSE school-leaving exams, “Thus far the thrust of all policies
national, state and two municipal are on a par with top-ranked private and initiatives for improving public
corporations. All these governments schools in the national capital with education has been on inclusion and
run their own schools across the as good board exam results. equity rather than excellence. The
sprawling state (pop. 18 million) The tall claims made by the AAP AAP government’s SoSE initiative
which includes the national capi- government to have revolution- offers meritorious and gifted chil-
tal. Thus the total number of K-12 ised education in state government dren from low-income households
schools in Delhi state is 5,755 with schools are not mere hype. Two the opportunity to avail globally
an aggregate enrolment of 4.4 mil- RPVV schools are ranked among benchmarked school education. It is
lion children. India’s Top 5 government schools in certain to prove very popular,” says
Nevertheless it’s commonly ac- the authoritative EducationWorld Dr. Sudha Acharya, principal, ITL

12 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021