Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with his deputy Manish Sisodia at Saturday’s event. (Express photo: Amit Mehra)Addressing parents and students of Delhi government schools who scored above 90% in the CBSE class XII examinations this year, education minister Manish Sisodia Saturday said none of them should stop studying after school because of economic problems and flagged Delhi government schemes to subsidise their higher education.
Speaking to students and their parents in a ceremony Saturday, Sisodia drew attention to two government schemes. While the first scheme, Higher Education and Skill Development Guarantee Scheme, allows students to avail education loans up to Rs 10 lakh to study in colleges in Delhi with the government standing as guarantor, the second is an economic need-based scholarship for studying in higher education institutes under Delhi government, such as GGS Indraprastha University, Ambedkar University and Delhi Technological University.
These scholarships are to the tune of 25% of fee for students with a family income between Rs 2.5 and Rs 6 lakh; 50% of the fees for those between Rs 1 and Rs 2.5 lakh; and 100% for those with income below Rs 1 lakh.
During an interactive session, Sisodia promised students that the government will cover a mandatory Rs 1,500 CBSE registration fee. The announcement came after a student expressed concern about the fee.
At the ceremony, Sisodia also mentioned some new initiatives for students, particularly with a mind to their lives after completing school.
He also spoke of the government arranging for extra-curricular academic coaching for students. “There are some initiatives being taken at the school level by principals but in a year or two, from the government’s side, there will be arrangement of preparatory coaching classes for exams like NEET and JEE in schools,” said Sisodia.
At the ceremony, where over 1,000 students who had scored over 90% were felicitated along with their parents, both Sisodia and CM Arvind Kejriwal took the opportunity to speak about AAP’s contributions to the school education system. “Over 70 years, an education system has developed in our country wherein the children of the poor go to government schools and children of the rich go to private schools… With pride I can say that government schools have produced a 94.4% pass percentage (in CBSE class XII examination). Their results are better than those of private schools,” said Kejriwal.
