School of Specialized Excellence Inaugurated in Janakpuri

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with his Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister, Manish Sisodia inaugurated the newly built Dr B R Ambedkar School of Specialized Excellence in DESU Colony, Janakpuri. on Thursday, 2 February 2023.

 “In the history of our country, I don’t think any other government school has been built this beautifully,” said Kejriwal, addressing students, parents, and teachers of neighboring schools.

He added, “Different Schools of Specialized Excellence are being set up to bring out the talent of our children in the fields of engineering, medicine, IT and artificial intelligence. Today, if we are able to give a better education to both the rich and the poor without any bias, nothing can stop our country from doing well.”

SoSEs offer specialized education to students of classes 9 to 12 in four domains — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), humanities, performing and visual arts, and high-tech 21st-century skills which include subjects such as robotics and computer programming.

“Under CM Kejriwal, we are not just building schools but building temples of Saraswati maa in Delhi to provide education to students,” said Sisodia, addressing the audience.

The Janakpuri SoSE has come up at the site of a dilapidated old school building that was handed over to the directorate of education by DESU (the erstwhile Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking). Delhi government’s Public Works Department (PWD) started construction work in May 2021, after demolishing the old structure. Built on an area of 8,600 square meters, The school is equipped with 45 classrooms, 8 labs, a library, a multipurpose hall, 13 officer and staff rooms, 26 toilets, five staircases and two lifts. The four Storey structure also has an auditorium with a seating capacity of 250.

Housed in one building, the school offers two specializations — Humanities and High End 21st Century skills. Around April, 120 students each will take admission to class IX in each specialization.

The government plans to dedicate five school buildings for 13 Dr B R Ambedkar Schools of Specialized Excellence in 2022-23. This would be in addition to 31 SoSEs already functional with about 5,500 students. With this, in 2022-23, there would be 44 Schools of Specialized Excellence in 36 buildings with nearly 10,000 students.

Kejriwal stated that about 96,000 applications have been received for admission to 4,400 seats in these schools. “Even IIT and medical courses don’t get such a response,” he said.

Source - HT, Indian Express & ANI.