Closed govt schools to be revived using PPP model

Nagpur: Closed government schools may soon get a new lease of life with the state education department firming up revival plans using the public-private partnership (PPP) model. According to officials in the education department, this proposal will allow private trusts/societies to restart schools in which minimum 50% of students will receive free education.

Nand Kumar, state's principal secretary of school education, told TOI that the proposal to revive closed schools has to come from local stakeholders (private party, local body, community leaders etc). "If they are eager to restart the school and scale it up an institute that provides international level education, then it will ensure long term sustainability," he said.

Land ownership will continue to remain with the government and the selected private party will only play the role of imparting education as per state's guidelines. This proposal is not part of the new education board to be started by the state government as exclusively reported by TOI on Tuesday.

This could be a win-win situation for all stakeholders as private parties will ensure quality education and better infrastructure to garner more enrolment while government gets more seats to provide free education to students. Restarting schools will also solve the problem of anti-social elements taking over vacant premises and causing a law and order problem for the community.

For now, this PPP scheme will focus on closed zilla parishad schools as it will be easier for the state education department to deal directly with interested private parties. Reviving and upgrading ZP schools will also mean that quality education reaches the hinterland.

Dipendra Lokhande, district's education officer said that from this academic session the state has shut down 24 ZP schools in Nagpur due to low enrolment. "The affected students have been shifted to nearby schools, so nobody has been deprived of education. After the closures, we have 1,538 ZP schools functioning," he said.

School closures are becoming more common as parents in both rural and urban areas are shifting their kids from government schools to private ones. The latter have started 'budget schools' to cater to the socio-economic structure of their catchment area.

In Nagpur city too, the civic body schools have been shutting down at an alarming rate. From 165 schools at the start of this decade, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) now has only 111 functioning with a total student strength of approximately 21,000.

TOI had reported on September 27 about NMC's plan the revive six of its closed schools as Kendriya Vidyalayas. KV Sanghatna, the apex governing body, has already conducted a site inspection but is yet to take a final decision to restart the schools. But once the state's PPP model guidelines get finalized the NMC may find more interested private parties, because of its schools being situated in prime locations.

INFO GFX

The Plan: To revive closed government schools using public-private partnership model

Stakeholders: Government to remain landowners. Private party to spruce up infrastructure and provide quality education as per government guidelines

Benefits for students | Minimum 50% seats will be reserved for free admissions as per government guidelines. Private party can charge fee for remaining seats to recover costs.

Which schools in Nagpur will reopen? ZP schools will be first in line, but both stakeholders need to coordinate and apply to the state education department.

Any schools in city? That call will have to be taken by NMC. The civic body has already taken up a similar project and requested Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatna to revive six of its closed schools.