Gujarat government indecisive, ‘dream project’ unlikely to commence in June

The statement comes six months after 70 applicants were shortlisted following a rigorous scrutiny of around 350 applications for the state government project on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The names were shortlisted in December 2021 by a state education department’s committee.

Prominent religious organisations, eminent philanthropists, private universities, corporate institutions, Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and non-government organisations (NGOs) were among the applicants interested in the scheme that offers free residential schooling from class 6-12 by private project partners.

However, the process is yet to get the final nod from the state government. Despite repeated meetings and interactions with the shortlisted candidates, the state government is still indecisive about the project.

The education department was aiming at the PPP model with the entire investment on land, infrastructure, human resource, logistics and management to run nearly 50 ‘Residential Schools of Excellence’ with 2,000-10,000 students set to commence from June. While the entire capital cost will be borne by the project partner, the education department will provide financial assistance for meeting recurring costs through a lump sum amount of Rs 60,000 per child per year decided for the financial year 2021-22 with an annual increase of 7 per cent every year. “Ideally 50 schools will be selected where these would be required to undertake infrastructure by June 2022 as per minimum requirement and part by next June,” Education Secretary Vinod Rao had told The Indian Express after the names were shortlisted.

The department had also prepared a detailed presentation on the project requirements that was shown to the shortlisted applicants in January. Also, with the help of legal professionals, the conditions of the MoU have been framed to bind them legally.

The policy aims to create a total of 1-lakh student capacity at these residential schools from Class 6-12 within the next three to five years.

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Meanwhile, sources in the education department had revealed that the number of applications from the Saurashtra region is the highest than other parts of the state, including tribal areas.

The state government had, last year, even signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between University of Cambridge and the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) for the residential schools of excellence. As per the MoU, while classes 6-8 will be bilingual, it will be English medium from Class 9 onwards.

Teacher training will be implemented through residential schools of excellence from June 2022 to enable collaboration on the development of curriculum, assessment, teaching and learning resources, the MoU, between Cambridge Partnership for Education—part of the University of Cambridge—and the state government, had stated.