“We have recently set up two committees for working on the proposed board as well as curriculum reforms. An ideal situation would be that we make it operational by next year. Initially, around 40 schools will be affiliated to the board, which could be either government or private,” said Sisodia.

What happens in other state boards is that the private schools are free to make their choice whether they want to opt for CBSE, ICSE or state board, while government schools follow the state board. We will have no imposition. It will be optional for both government and private schools. We want to make the board so enriching and useful, that there is demand for it,” he added.

The Delhi government had last month constituted two committees to prepare the scheme and framework for the formation of the education board and curriculum reforms.

The AAP dispensation had announced the plan to set up a separate board of education for the national capital in its annual budget in March.

Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s Education Minister, said his government is studying the recently announced new education policy in detail.

“We are studying the policy in detail. We have already been working on some of the reforms proposed in it. There are a few anomalies but there are a few good things too. I have told the two committees that our board will be in sync with the NEP because as a nation we are together but the focus will not be on evaluating students once a year and encouraging rote learning in process,” he said.

Asked about teaching in mother tongue or regional language proposed by the NEP, Sisodia said, “I totally agree that the medium of instruction should be the home langauge in the initial years so that foundation is strong but I believe it should be limited to foundation years or pre primary stage. Taking it up to class 5 is not a good idea.”