Government's schools of excellence to admit based on merit this session

New Delhi: While students across the country prepare for eligibility tests scheduled to begin today, the Delhi cabinet on Monday approved the proporsal to admit students to its flagship Schools of Excellence without entrance tests and based on merit owing to the pandemic. In addition, it was also decided that unlike previous years, admission to these schools will be open only to students from fully funded government schools.

During Monday's cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, it was brought to light that the admission process in Delhi Government's Schools of Excellence (SoE) was facing hurdles.

Unlike every year, where students give an entrance exam for their admission into the SoE this year, due to the ongoing pandemic, admission will be on "merit based" only, a senior official of the Delhi Government told Millennium Post.

The six SoE — the English-medium schools of Delhi government — admit students based on an entrance test conducted in classes 9 and 11 but this year it would be merit based, added the official.

"Earlier the admission was open to all — government and private — schools but this year it will be only for students who have passed out from any of the fully funded government schools like the Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas (RPVV)," the official said.

As part of "Vision 2030", the directorate of education (DoE) had set its agenda to create at least one SoE in each district, teach a foreign language in government schools, conduct exchange programmes for students and corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding.

The tentative timeline for the introduction of foreign languages in SoEs and RPVVs was set for December 31, 2020.

Meanwhile the DoE had asked officials to map existing school buildings where construction of new rooms can be done with ease and prepare a proposal to declare those mapped institutes as SoEs by September 15.