NEW DELHI: The Delhi Board of School Education (DBSE) and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Board are working on a collaboration for the state government’s new Specialised Schools of Excellence (SOE) and for a pilot project on some Sarvodaya Schools. IB has submitted a proposal to the government about the application process and details of the curricula.
This year, the existing Schools of Excellence and Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV) will form the SOE, where four specialisations will be introduced for students from classes IX to XII. The new institutions will be affiliated with DBSE.
The document submitted by IB to the Directorate of Education states, “DBSE has expressed interest in applying for IB programmes via an expression of interest during our discussions, and IB, through this proposal, is motivated to collaborate with DBSE in order to bring the benefits of IB’s programmes to schools within the group, across the entire cycle of IB affiliation process from the application of candidacy to authorisation and beyond.”
According to a senior government official, the two parties are working out the modalities of engagement. Presentations have been made to the heads of schools in both these categories and details shared with them. As per the presentations, the performing and visual arts and 21st century skills specialisation will be handled through the IB careers programme and the humanities programme entirely by IB. For Sarvodaya Vidyalayas, IB will work with DBSE as a “knowledge partner”.
The document states, “We propose to offer IB programmes to a group of DBSE schools. DBSE will benefit from a 75% reduction in the AFC application fees. The DBSE team will identify the school leaders and schools which will adopt the IB programmes across Delhi.”
The plan is for the heads of the chosen schools to apply for IB candidacy, about which some of the institutions have queries. One asked: “Do we have to consider all the class sections or can we select only 4-5 sections because taking all the sections means a student strength of 1,814? If we go for selection, the number may be limited to 1,100. Kindly guide us for further processing.” Another said, “How will this primary years programme (PYP) offered by IB differ from the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) system and the no detention policy?”
