)
The government today set in motion the process of setting up model schools under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode by agreeing to bear the expense of educating poor students, drawing interests from around 65 private players including ITC Ltd, Jindal Education & Welfare Soceity, Zee Learn Ltd and Educomp Solutions.
The government worked out the guidelines for the new experiment, more than five years after the concept was first mooted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The first such school under PPP mode is likely to start from 2014-15 academic session.
The government plans to facilitate the construction of around 2,500 such schools under the PPP mode out of the total 6,000 model schools that will be constructed in the next few years. The remaining model schools will be constructed entirely by the government. In the first phase, 41 such schools are planned.
At least 40% of total students in these schools will have to be from economically weaker sections of society for whom education will be free, but only from class 6 th onwards. However, the schools under this model will come up only in the areas which are not educationally backward as classified by the ministry of human resource development since private players are interested in these areas only, officials said. The minimum number of total student strength in such schools will have to be 1,000 and maximum 2,500. However, the model concession agreement will be approved by an inter-ministerial committee by July 31.
The government on its part will reimburse the cost of education of such students, while the private sector will provide land and capital for construction of school buildings. The remaining students in the schools who are not reimbursed by the government will pay fees as per the norms set by the schools.
The government will reimburse the private sector at the rate of around Rs 2,000-2,500 per month for each student from economically poor background, which will also include a part of the capital expenditure incurred by the private sector. The reimbursement will be for 10 years, with a clause to escalate the reimbursement by 5% every year.
The concession agreement provides that after class VII, the school can charge a nominal Rs 50 fee from the poor students as well.
"I think the scheme that has been given to the private sector is pretty decent and hopefully private people will set up more schools as the expenditure of providing 40% of the students will taken care by the government," Shalini S Sharma, head, higher education, CII told Business Standard.
The model concession agreement which will signed by the private sector will be finalized by July 31, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters, after chairing a meeting with the private stakeholders expediting the process.. "The model schools in PPP mode will help in providing quality education to the poor students,” he said.
Representatives from leading private sector schools and also corporate participated in the meeting which officials said was called at the insistence of the Prime Minister.
Human Resource Development minister Pallam Raju said in the first stage 41 blocks have been identified in 9 states where the schools will start. “The schools will also have necessary component of vocational training,” Raju said.
“The concept is fantastic, but we want bureaucracy to have minimum role in this,” a participant from the private sector said.
The schools will be run and constructed as per CBSE guidelines. Officials said private sector will also arrange for training of teachers which has emerged as a big bottleneck in improving the quality of education. The schools can also run a second shift to teach students from poor background if it wants to.
