Govt picks Civil Lines state institution for first ‘Delhi Sports School’

The state government has identified a government school building in north Delhi’s Civil Lines to set up a ‘School of Specialized Excellence for Sports’ under the Delhi Sports University.

Earlier, officials said they planned to run the university from the campus of the Shaheed Amir Chand government Sarvodaya Vidyalaya (SAC GSV) in Civil Lines, till construction work on the institution’s Mundka complex is complete. However, according to an August 16 letter, the Delhi government will instead develop the institution as a Delhi Sports School as part of the university.

“Shaheed Amir Chand Government Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Ludlow Castle, Shamnath Marg... has been identified as a school of specialised excellence for sports,” state director of education Udit Prakash Rai said in the letter to the vice-chancellor of the sports university, Karnam Malleswari. HT has seen a copy of the letter.

Rai also said the Delhi Sports University will manage the Delhi Sports School for all maintenance and administrative work.

“Admissions to the school will start from the next academic session next year,” Malleswari said.

The state cabinet in October 2019 passed an order setting up the university in Mundka. Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal at the time, said the university will offer field-specific degrees that will be at par with those offered in other courses at the graduate, post-graduate and doctoral levels.

The government in the same month allocated the university a 90-acre plot in outer Delhi’s Mundka. However, construction work on the university was disrupted because of the pandemic and has not started yet. Weightlifting champion Malleswari was named the varsity’s V-C on June 24.

In June, when plans to temporarily start the university from the Shaheed Amir Chand school campus were being discussed, state government officials aware of the matter said some students of the Civil Lines government school will be moved to other nearby institutions in the meanwhile, and others will continue at the same school, but in another block.

There is, however, little clarity on the transfer of students after the government’s decision to begin a sports school in the campus.

Dharm Pal, a member of the School Management Committee, said, “There is no clarity on the fate of our children. Earlier, they told us that students from classes 9 to 12 will be able to continue their education here, but the latest letter does not even mention that. It seems like the government will transfer all the nearly 2,000 students from the school to admit only those students who enrol in the sports school,” said Dharm Pal. The Delhi government did not respond.