A part of a litany of projects announced by the Delhi government in its 2021 ‘Deshbhakti Budget’, the Armed Forces Preparatory School will aim to help students prepare for entry to the National Defense Academy (NDA) and other related entrance examinations.
The central theme of the government’s 2021 budget was ‘Deshbhakti’ with an overall outlay of at least Rs 98 crore for the ‘Deshbhakti’ project. The first section of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s scheme announcements during the budget speech was devoted to these, which included installing 500 high-mast national flags across the city, programs on lives and contributions of Dr BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh and the flagship ‘Deshbhakti Curriculum’ in its schools. As part of this push, he had also spoken about preparing children for the armed forces.
“To prepare our children to protect the country’s borders, we are planning to start a new Sainik School here and a Delhi Armed Forces Preparatory Academy. There are currently 33 Sainik Schools in India but not a single one in Delhi; we will open Delhi’s first Sainik School. Along with this, we’ll also start an Armed Forces Preparatory Academy. Here, along with their regular studies, children will be prepared to be enrolled in the NDA and Army,” he had said.
The setting up of Sainik Schools requires working with the central government since these are under the Ministry of Defense and not much ground has been covered on that.
However, admission to the Armed Forces Preparatory School is underway and it will be operational from the coming academic session with 200 students.
It will be the first fully residential school set up by the Delhi government in a 14-acre campus in Southwest Delhi’s Jharoda Kalan, but admissions will only be open to residents of Delhi.
It is being counted among the government’s new Schools of Specialized Excellence, in which each school is dedicated to specialization in one particular domain — from STEM to Performing & Visual Arts. Like the other SOSEs, it will have classes from grades IX to XII and the curriculum will cover both basic study and specialisation.
According to a government official, the specialization modules are still in the works with a tender having been issued to bring in a knowledge partner with experience in this domain.
The school will have an academic wing and a ‘service preparatory’ wing. In classes IX and X, the focus of the academic wing will be on basic subjects such as Maths, English, Hindi, General Sciences and Social Sciences; and in XI and XII it will be on academic training to prepare for the National Defense Academy and other entry examinations.
The services preparatory wing is aimed at “nurturing the identified potential and improving on the identified gaps/working areas” and inculcating “officer-like qualities” in the students. The school promises to provide Services Selection Board training cycles, personality development capsules, spoken English and verbal expression training sessions.
Fifty per cent of admissions to the school will be reserved for students of government and government-aided schools. Candidates will appear for an aptitude test with questions on Maths, English and General Ability, which will be followed by an interview and medical screening, and only students who are medically fit according to NDA standards will be admitted.
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