‘Newly formed Delhi Board of School Education will end the tyranny of assessment’

Delhi got its own school education board this year. The Delhi Board of School Education (DBSE) signed an MoU this year with International Baccalaureate (IB) to implement IB programmes in 30 government schools, of which 20 are its new Schools of Specialised Excellence (SOSEs) and 10 are government Sarvodaya Vidyalayas in East Delhi. The IB is a private international education board with its Foundation Office in Geneva. It has around 5,000 schools globally. Talking about SOSEs, they offer specialised education to students of classes 9 to 12 in four domains – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); humanities, performing and visual arts, and “high- end 21st-century skills.” According to reports, a total of 14,245 students took the tests for SOSEs and from that 2,794 students were selected and were offered admission in the STEM, Humanities and High-end 21st Century Skills schools. The admission in the STEM schools are offered for classes 9 and 11. However, in the rest of the schools, it was for class 9 only.

In a conversation with Aditya Berlia, Immediate Past Chairman, CII Delhi State, Co-Promoter Apeejay Stya Group and Svran group at the CII Delhi Education Summit 2021, Upadhyay who is also Regional Director of Education, Govt. of NCT of Delhi said the prime focus of DBSE is to usher in infrastructure reform, build a strong school community, capacity building of teachers and curriculum reform. He said DBSE was set up to end the tyranny of assessment. “Our classrooms and lesson plans are not oriented for student-centric education and exams only test the memorising skills of students. Application, skill, concepts, and attitude are rarely assessed. As a result students are defined by marks.”  He said the objective of DBSE is to end semester exams which not only fail to assess the child’s learning journey, but also raise the stakes and pressure on students.

‘The aim is to build a new model of schools that caters to diverse student aspirations’

Highlighting the vision of DBSE, Mr Upadhyay said the aim is to build a new model of schools that caters to diverse student aspirations, promotes conceptual understanding over rote-learning, assess students’ knowledge, skills and values, provides option for specialised learning, use child-centric pedagogy and is relevant for higher education and aspirational careers.

He further emphasised that to provide quality education, SOSEs has partnered with prominent knowledge partners such as Vidyamandir Classes, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, National Institute of Fashion Technology and Global Music Institute. He said SOSEs is a platform to nurture students, boost talent and excel in areas of their specialised interests.

He said students receive rigorous education in the fields of engineering and medical sciences, supported by Vidyamandir Classes’ unique collaborative teaching model backed by world-class infrastructure and specialised laboratories. The digital infrastructure includes high-tech K-Yans for live class streaming, student-teacher Interaction for doubts clearing and digital devices for live assessments.

Mr Upadhyay further explained that a three-point strategy is followed for an enhanced learning experience. The first one is ‘Reflection Journals’ in which students maintain a journal with reflections on what they have learnt throughout the day. This is complimented by notebooks of each subject. The second is ‘Student Portfolios’. Here students will organise and store resources in a portfolio for easy reference and review. The third is ‘Extended Learning’ (at home). Students are provided with research assignments to encourage and aid independent practice and learning at home. Mr Upadhyay said affiliation to DBSE will be optional.