Delhi to have its own school education board, says Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi : Delhi will have its own school education board like other states, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced today, NDTV reported. The state government approved the formation of the Delhi Board of School Education during a cabinet meet.

The capital has 1,000 government schools and 1,700 private schools. All government schools and most private schools are affiliated to the CBSE, the Chief Minister said. 20 to 25 government schools will be made part of the new state education board in the coming academic year and their CBSE affiliation will be scrapped, he said. The schools that will be brought under the state board will be decided after discussions with school principals, teachers and parents.

"The focus will not be on learning by rote. It will be on understanding (of concepts) and personality development," he said, adding that students will be assessed through the year and the education system will be based at par with international standards.

"We hope that all schools will voluntarily get affiliated to this board within four to five years," Mr Kejriwal said.

The Delhi government had last July formed two panels to prepare the scheme and framework for the formation of the state education board and curriculum reforms.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had announced its plans for curriculum reforms and creating a new board of education for Delhi in its annual budget.

In 2019, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is also the state's Education Minister, had said the new board will not be a replacement for the CBSE but a next generation board to help students prepare for entrance examinations like Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical colleges.