Supporting the Project Management Unit of the Delhi Board of School Education

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi set up DBSE to build a state-of-the-art education system that provides world-class school education. The newly formed Board for schools in the capital city of India will impart competency-based education to prepare students for the 21st century.

There are approximately 1000 government schools in Delhi out of which 30 schools have been affiliated to DBSE in the 2021-22 academic session. Over the coming years, all government schools are planned to be affiliated to DBSE and some private schools are also expected to switch to the new Board from their existing affiliations. March 2022 marked the end of the first academic year for DBSE.

ACER India has been providing technical assistance to DBSE through the Project Management Unit (PMU), working closely with the academic and managerial leadership of the Delhi government and its partners. In the last academic year, we have contributed to curriculum development, assessment design, pedagogic reform, and professional development strategies in alignment to the Delhi Government’s vision of providing progressive and innovative education for the schools of Delhi and beyond. 

The PMU focuses on four key thematic areas:

• primary years programme (PYP) curriculum development
• middle years programme (MYP) curriculum development
• assessments
• professional development

Each area is led by an ACER India team deployed at the DBSE PMU that works with government representatives and its partners in a collaborative and deliberative manner to operationalise the Board.

Significant milestones have been achieved in the academic year 2021-2022.

Assessment

The assessment team developed the assessment framework in consultation with government experts to create a robust assessment system based on a progressive assessment philosophy and practical concerns of administering high quality assessments. The Board administered the ACER India developed annual examination and admission tests for Grades 9 and 11 for the first time. Presently, we are creating the first school-leaving certificate examination for students of DBSE schools.

Curriculum

The PYM and MYP curriculum team of ACER India has been working closely, for the last few months, with mentor teachers and Assistant Professors of the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) of Delhi. These curricular materials have been designed in consultation with representatives of the International Baccalaureate (IB), and the first few units are already being used in classrooms across the state.

Professional development

Over the last few months, the ACER India professional development team has led workshops and training programmes with DBSE members, and other key stakeholders including teachers, on a variety of subjects including the IB's structure and curriculum development process, inquiry-based approach to learning, and assessments – formative and summative. Currently, the team is working on a fresh Needs Analysis exercise for the members of DBSE and teachers in the DBSE schools, as they gear up for the beginning of the first fully functional academic year.