Two-thirds of Delhi govt schools not teaching science in classes 11-12: RTI

New Delhi: Only onethird of schools under the Delhi government are teaching science subjects to students in classes 11 and 12, a reply to an RTI query has revealed. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that had in its 2015 Delhi Assembly election manifesto promised to build 500 new schools in the city has opened just 63 new schools between February 2015 and May 2022, according to the RTI. The Education Department of the Delhi government gave the information in response to an application filed under the Right To Information (RTI) Act on behalf of PTI

The RTI sought information on the number of Delhi government schools teaching science and commerce su bjects in classes 11 and 12 as well as the number of new schools opened by the govt between February 2015 and May 2022 in the city. While the information related to 326 schools was obtained through the RTI application, the data of other schools was collected from the website of the Directorate of Education. A total of 838 higher secondary schools have data available, out of which only 279 schools teach science subjects and 674 schools offer commerce subjects to students of classes 11 and 12. That is, about 66 per cent of the government schools in the city do not teach science subjects while about 19 pc do not teach commerce subjects in the two classes.