Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia presided over a meeting today to outline the scope of the Delhi Model Virtual School, a first-of-its-kind virtual school that will strive to provide excellent education to students remotely through personalised teaching-learning, effective assessments and use of cutting edge technology. It is to be noted that Delhi Government had proposed to establish the virtual school in the budget of FY 2021-22.
Existing models of virtual schools in the US and New Zealand were discussed in the meeting. The Deputy CM constituted a six member committee comprising school principal, teachers, and IT officials. The committee will study global best practices in virtual schooling and submit a blueprint for Delhi's virtual school within a week.
Speaking on the nature of the school, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that Delhi’s virtual school will be like any other regular school. It will have a school ID and dedicated staff. Students will get admitted and will be given unique IDs. This school will have students, teachers, regular teaching-learning activities, assessments and all other education related facilities. The school will operate with the principle of ‘anywhere living, anytime learning, anytime testing.’ Speaking on the beneficiaries of the virtual school, he mentioned that “the school will cater to a wide cross section of students, including students interested in studying from home, sports persons and artists who need to devote adequate time towards honing their skills, school dropouts and other youth who would want to complete their education.”
The Deputy Chief Minister added that extensive work on remote learning carried out by Delhi teachers during the pandemic year has developed the system’s capacity in handling online education effectively. Our teachers have learned to use technology effectively for teaching-learning purposes. This online teaching-learning during the pandemic has created a fertile ground for establishment of the country’s first virtual school in Delhi.
The meeting was attended by Director Education and Advisor to Director Education along with IT Secretary, officials from Finance and Education departments, and school teachers and principals