Karnataka - Bangalore   

Public-private tie-up in schools proposed

Bangalore: Even as serious concerns are voiced about commercialisation of education, the Government is chalking out plans to allow greater private participation in primary and secondary schools.

A draft proposal by the Centre on starting “model schools” in public-private partnership (PPP) has been sent to all States, including Karnataka, for comments.

This thinking follows a proposal in the 11th Five Year Plan which says that the Government, rather than starting schools and running them, should move towards bearing the children’s educational cost.

Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education, T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, told The Hindu that this was part of the promise in the Plan of giving thrust to secondary education by setting up “model schools” in 6,000 educational blocks across the country. These would be broken into two components. While those which rate high on the educational index would have schools in PPP, the rest would be started and run by the Government. A few rounds of meetings had taken place in Delhi on this proposal, he added.

If this formula was accepted, Karnataka would have 74 government-run model schools in backward districts and 102 schools under PPP in educationally-advanced areas. Mr. Bhaskar said that the Government would give a percentage of money in building the school, but the running cost of the school would be borne by the private partner. “About 50 to 70 per cent of the children in these schools will be selected by the Government and the recurring cost of their education will be met by the Government,” he said. The rest of the students will be charged fees by the institution.

Mr. Bhaskar, however, added that the proposal was still in draft stage and there were “different opinions” on it, all of which had been forwarded to the Centre.

“No process has started yet towards implementing it,” he said.

The proposal is already drawing flak as an effort towards dismantling the public education system to pave way for greater privatisation. School Development and Monitoring Committee Coordination Forum, Karnataka, said in a statement that the “need of the hour is a common school system of public education.”

The forum will appeal to the Governor that Karnataka should withdraw from this process, “which goes against the Constitutional mandate”.

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