Plan to set up 550 new senior secondary schools in Delhi

Updated on: Monday, November 14, 2011

In view of growing demand, Delhi Government proposes to set up 550 senior secondary schools in the city besides ramping up other educational infrastructure in the city during the 12th Five Year Plan period.

In a policy paper submitted to Planning Commission outlining priorities for the 12th Plan period (2012-17), the city government said "massive investment" was required in education sector to cater to the rapidly increasing demands for quality educational institutions.

Particularly focusing on requirement in the secondary education sector, the government said there was need to set up 550 new senior secondary schools in the next five years for the projected population of 1.90 crore by 2017.

As per official figures, the city currently has 5,043 schools which include 2,636 pre-primary and primary schools, 583 middle schools and 1,824 secondary and senior secondary schools with total intake of around 38 lakh students.

The total number of teachers is around 1.10 lakh.

Out of 5043 schools, 2,666 are government schools while rest 2,377 are private.

Noting that private sector has key role to play in enhancing educational infrastructure, the government said the city's largest land owning agency Delhi Development Authority needs to make allotment of land at concessional rates to private entities to set up new schools.

In the field of higher education also, government said there was a need to set up more quality educational institutions and argued that the demand could be gauged from cut off marks of 97 to 100 per cent prescribed by some Delhi University colleges for admission to some popular courses at under graduate level in the current academic session.

Currently there are 160 colleges in the city which includes 83 Delhi University colleges, 77 colleges affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University.

Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Milia Islamia University, being the central universities, do not have any quota or preference for Delhi students and that is why city students often face tough competition to get admission, the paper said, laying stress on setting up of new colleges.

In the field of professional and technical education, Delhi has 107 degree and post graduate level professional and technical education institutions affiliated to GGSIP University, Delhi University and other universities.

Listing government's initiatives to improve educational infrastructure, the paper said the literacy rate in Delhi has been on the rise saying it has risen to 86.34 in 2011 from 61.54 in 1981.

The per capita expenditure on education in Delhi has increased from Rs 2,077 in 2007-08 to Rs 3,492 in 2011-12.

The government said plan expenditure on education sector has been enhanced during 11th Five Year Plan Plan.

It said plan allocation for education sector was Rs 479 crore in 2006-07, the terminal year of the 10th Five Year Plan which was enhanced to Rs 1,341 crore in 2011-12, the terminal year of 11 Five Year Plan.

Taking into account the non-plan expenditure of Rs 4,551 crore in 2011-12, the total investment in would be of Rs 5,851 crore in the educartion sector, the government said.

Plan to set up 550 new senior secondary schools in Delhi

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