Delhi: No admissions to class VI in Rajkiya Pratibha Vidyalayas

With the Delhi government working towards making its Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas (RPVVs) part of a network of ‘schools of specialised excellence’, it will no longer be admitting students to class VI in these cream schools.

The RPVVs are a network of 22 resource-rich Delhi government schools. Unlike other Delhi government schools, these schools are exclusive and admissions to these are conducted for classes VI and XI through competitive entrance tests.

Last year, because of the Covid situation, the Directorate of Education took a call to not conduct these entrance tests. While it had admitted students in class XI through their marks, no admissions were conducted for class VI. Because of this, the youngest batch of students in these schools are currently in class VIII.

While registration for admission to Delhi government schools is currently ongoing, there has been no notification for RPVV admissions. An education official said these admissions are going to be discontinued such that the schools will begin only from class IX.

“There will be no fresh admissions below class IX in RPVVs and Schools of Excellence, with the idea that these models are being converted to be subsumed into the network of ‘schools of specialised excellence’ we are developing. The existing junior-most batch will continue till class XII but there will be no fresh admissions,” the official said.

The Delhi Cabinet had in March approved a proposal for the establishment of 100 schools of specialised excellence in Delhi. This proposal had first been announced by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia during this year’s budget speech. He had announced that the five existing Schools of Excellence and the RPVVs will be part of these 100 specialised excellence schools.

Each of these schools are proposed to cover one domain of specialization — Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Performing and Visual Arts, Humanities and “high-end 21st century skills”. These schools will be for ‘gifted students’ from classes IX and XII who have special aptitude and interest in these domains.

“The plan had been to operationalise some of these schools this year but the timeline has become haywire because of the Covid situation of the last few months. So we will have to see when we can get this in motion,” the official said.