Nod to second shift in schools

The Capital is all set to get ‘new’ schools in the evening shift, much like the evening colleges of Delhi University.

The Capital is all set to get ‘new’ schools in the evening shift, much like the evening colleges of Delhi University.

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Seven months after a committee was set up to decide its fate, the proposal to open second shift in unaided private schools was finally passed by the Delhi government on Friday.

While the nod had been given in December itself, the government had set up a sub-committee of the Delhi School Education Advisory Board to discuss the modalities. The sub-committee has decided that a school will be allowed to start a full-fledged school in the second shift and can’t shift one of their wings to the evening slot.

“Schools will not be allowed to run, for example, their primary wing in the first shift and the secondary wing in the second. The second school shift must have different students and teachers. Only the building and the infrastructure will be the same,” said MS Rawat, member of the advisory board and general secretary of Federation of Private Schools, Delhi.

Since the schools are already mid-session, the earliest the evening schools can start will be next year.

Second shifts in schools would, to some extent, ease the severe crisis of nursery school admissions. A number of schools had been asking the government to allow them to start a second shift for long.

The sub-committee had prepared a detailed report and submitted it to the advisory board, which examined it and passed the proposal on Friday. The educational requirements regarding the second shift will be sent to schools within a few days, the Delhi government said.

“The biggest challenge in meeting the ever-growing education needs of an increasing number of students is to provide them classrooms with all basic amenities. As it is not possible to allow the expansion of a majority of existing schools, the only possible solution seems to be to allow them to run second shifts,” said Delhi education minister Kiran Walia.