Govt to build over 12,000 rooms in its schools: Sisodia

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 17

The Delhi government will build 12,748 new rooms, including around 9,981 classrooms, in its schools in the next one and half years, Deputy Chief Minister (CM) Manish Sisodia said today after the Cabinet cleared a proposal in this regard here. The Cabinet also approved convening of the Delhi Assembly session from 6th to 10th August.

CM Arvind Kejriwal, who chaired the meeting, termed the decision “massive infra boost" for the education sector of the capital.

With an estimated cost of Rs 2892.65 crore, the project will also involve 106 multipurpose halls, 328 laboratories, 204 libraries, principal, vice principal and staff rooms, as well as 1,067 toilet blocks, Sisodia said.

This will include Rs 1,300 crore of the current financial year and Rs 1,562.65 crore of the 2019-20 fiscal. The PWD is the executing agency for the project, said the government.

Noting that these rooms will be constructed in the next one to one and half years, Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said 8,000 additional rooms have already been constructed in the government schools as part of the comprehensive agenda to impart quality education to the children of Delhi and with the construction of new rooms the total figure will cross 20,000.

He said the adverse student classroom ratio has to be reversed and the construction of new classrooms is an important step in this direction.

The Deputy CM said the Delhi government wants to develop capacity of the schools run by it and the municipal corporations to facilitate accommodating at least 44 lakh children.

Sisodia claimed the need for new rooms in schools will always be felt as children from private schools have now started moving to Delhi government-run schools due to improved facilities and education there

Schools in over 280 buildings are running in double-shifts with high enrolment of students. The government has also introduced new vocational streams in the school curriculum for which additional classrooms will be required.

The PWD was requested to survey all the school buildings for preparing the estimates for construction of classrooms along with all the basic requirements.