Admissions for first batch of students for Delhi govt’s model virtual school begins

The Delhi Model Virtual School was first announced by Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in his 2021-2022 budget speech. After more than a year in the pipeline, the school has now opened admissions for the 2022-23 academic year. While the school will operate for classes IX-XII, this year’s admissions are only being conducted for class IX. The Directorate of Education has not yet announced how many students will be admitted to the school.

“Since it’s a virtual school, we can admit any number of students but we want to be able to offer mentorship to all the students. There are decisions that will be made based on the kind of response received through the application process,” said an education department official.

So far, 20 teachers have been trained in conducting live classes and tutorials virtually for the six main subjects which will be offered to students in Cass IX — English, Hindi, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and Computer Science.

However, the official stated that the number of teachers too would be adjusted in line with the response to the application process. In the past, Sisodia has stated the target beneficiaries of the school include students interested in studying from home, sportspersons, and artists who need to dedicate time for their training and school dropouts who want to continue education.

The school will not charge any fees and it will be affiliated to the Delhi government’s Delhi Board of School education. One of the features that the school is promoting is ‘Anytime Testing’.

“There are two kinds of assessments – formative and summative. The former is like unit tests and these can be taken by students at any time of their choosing, so it is flexible. In the case of mid-term and end-of-term exams, the idea is to conduct them in Delhi in a designated centre,” said an official.