A residential school for orphans and students from SC, ST, OBC and minorities will start functioning from the current academic session at Isapur area of West Delhi.
The school will be modelled on Bhubaneshwar-based Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), which is considered as the biggest residential institute in South Asia imparting education to students from kindergarten to post graduate level involving around 20,000 tribal students.
Initially around 300 children will be given admission in the current year in the school, which will be managed and maintained by KISS.
Officials said the school will impart education to 1,200 students and it would have classes from 1st to 12th standard. The age of admission in Class I would be six years.
The Delhi government today signed a MoU with KISS for setting up of the school at a function attended by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan, Power minister Haroon Yusuf, Revenue minister Arvinder Singh and Social Welfare minister Kiran Walia.
KISS founder Samanta and senior officials of the institute were also present on the occasion.
Dikshit had visited the institute in Bhubaneshwar in 2011 and felt a similar school should be opened in Delhi.
The city government would spend Rs 5,000 per month on each child for five years. Afterwards, KISS would take care of all the expenses.
KISS will operate, maintain and manage the school for a period of 15 years on no profit, no loss basis. A governing body headed by Delhi Chief Secretary will take major police decisions pertaining to the CBSE-affiliated school.
Recounting her visit to KISS, the Chief Minister spoke about her feelings when she first saw 20,000 children from 62 tribes standing in a disciplined manner to greet her.
"It was unbelievable," she said, lauding Samanta's efforts in creating a "slice of heaven" for poor tribal children where each one is given food, accommodation, health care and education from KG to post graduate level free of cost.
The family income of eligible students should not be more than Rs 2 lakh per annum. The school would provide boarding, lodging, education, books, stationery and healthcare facilities.
