Delhi schools to get over 12,000 new rooms

The Delhi cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal for building 12,478 new rooms in schools in the national capital.

The cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, took the decision to build the rooms at an estimated cost of Rs 2,892.65 crore by 2020.

The Public Works Department (PWD) will be the executing agency for this project, Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia told the media.

"Of these rooms, 9,981 will be classrooms, 106 multi-purpose halls, 328 laboratories and others will include libraries, rooms for principals and vice principals and staff rooms in the existing premises of Delhi government schools," he said.

Sisodia said 8,000 additional rooms have already been constructed in Delhi government schools as part of the comprehensive agenda to impart quality education in Delhi.

He said the adverse Student Classroom Ratio (SCR) has to be reversed and the construction of new classrooms was an important step in this direction.

Over 280 schools were running in double shifts with a high enrolment of students, he said, adding the government had also introduced new vocational streams in the school curriculum for which additional classrooms would be required.

"Keeping in view the increasing trend of population growth of Delhi and above-mentioned requirements, an exercise was carried out for all the schools of this Directorate," he said. - IANS