Gujarat Hardlook | How Surat’s Suman Schools are powering dreams, changing lives of low-income groups

Similarly, CA aspirant Siddhi Tarsariya has high aspirations. She is the youngest among the three children of Bharatbhai who works at a diamond factory in Surat. He earns around Rs 15,000 per month, while his wife and elder daughter supplement the family income by doing embellishments on sarees from home. The eldest is a son who works as a collection agent at a private bank. The family lets Siddhi to solely focus on her studies.

“My entire education was from the municipal school starting from Class I. Currently, I am taking coaching for Chartered Accountancy and have taken a scholarship for tuition fees from CA Ravi Chhawchharia. I have completed the foundation course in December 2023 and am now doing my intermediate course after which the CA Final will be the last hurdle,” says Siddhi who is also an external student of B.Com at Amroli college.

Siddhi Tarsariya with her parents; (right) Mayur Katariya (File Photo)

The 20-year-old plans to teach Chartered Accountancy after clearing the final.

First-year MBBS student Mayur Katariya is the son of diamond factory worker Nagjibhai — the sole breadwinner of the family of two children. Nearly two weeks ago, Mayur was invited by his alma mater, Suman High School at Punagam, to felicitate him and thus, inspire Class 12 students. “Due to my family’s poor financial condition, my parents got me admitted to the municipal school. Later, through our community leader, I got admission at a private school from where I did my Class 9 to Class 12. I gave scholarship exams at private schools and secured a seat,” he said.

Mayur scored 95 per cent and 81 per cent in Class 10 and Class 12 respectively, and cleared the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) scoring 620 to secure an MBBS admission at Government Medical College in Surat.

Mayur’s sister is a second-year commerce student, while his mother supplements the family income by decorating sarees.

Apart from their studious nature that powers their dreams, Jagruti, Siddhi and Mayur have another common link — all are alumni of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC)-run Suman (Surat Maha Nagar) schools.

Why Suman schools

The civic body introduced the Suman High Schools programme back in 1999 “to provide quality secondary education to the low-income group of the city with nominal fees”.

According to Suman Schools Administrator Dharmesh Patel, the schools were started to reduce “dropout rates” as a large number of students who passed out from the municipal board schools after class 8 struggled to get admission in class 9 self-financed or grant-in-aid schools. Thus, many would discontinue their studies. “In Suman schools, we give admission only to municipal school students. We have 23 schools with 182 classes for class 9 and 10 students and 17 schools with 57 classes for class 11 and 12 students,” Dharmesh said.

Back in 1999, classes were offered only in Gujarati medium. However, 25 years later, Marathi, Hindi, Odia, Urdu and English medium schools have also been established to keep up with the demands of the city’s high migrant population. Nearly 40 per cent are migrants in Surat’s population of 70 lakh.

According to Dharmesh, the school board has added Marathi medium schools on demand. “So, we started new classes for 11 and 12 Science streams. The school authorities are also planning to start Class 12 Science in Gujarati medium in the next academic session in 2025,” Dharmesh Patel said.

He added that there is a shortage of schools and classrooms. “On our request, SMC has added four new schools whose foundation stone was virtually laid by PM Narendra Modi during his recent visit to Navsari on February 22, 2024. The project will be finished by June 2025 and we will get 40 more classrooms,” he said.

Last year, 10 students from various Suman high schools secured an A1 grade in Class 12 in the commerce stream. Four of these 10 were from the lower middle-class. (File Photo)

For the longest time after it was established, Suman schools were only focused on secondary school education. That changed with the Covid-induced hardships.

In 2021, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, when many parents were shifting their children from private schools to government-run schools, SMC former standing committee chairman Paresh Patel came up with the idea of launching classes 11 and 12 for Science and Commerce streams in Suman schools.

Currently a BJP councillor, Paresh Patel told The Indian Express that SMC sees education as a fundamental right of each and every child. “We noticed that students belonging to the low-income class were not enrolling themselves for secondary education after primary education. There might be many issues affecting their decision. Some may have to join private schools. Others may have to join grant-in-aid schools that are far from their residences. The dropout ratio increased as a result,” he said.

In 2022, Suman schools were started for Class 11 in general stream in the Gujarati, Marathi and Hindi mediums, and Science Stream in Marathi medium.

The first batch of students appeared in the Class 12 board exams in March 2023.

Last year, 10 students from various Suman high schools secured an A1 grade in Class 12 in the commerce stream. Four of these 10 were from the lower middle-class.

While 92 per cent commerce students cleared the exam, the pass percentage in the science stream was 75 per cent. The pass percentage of Class 10 board exam was 75 per cent last year.

“I was a bright student, and the Municipal teachers paid extra attention to me. They believed that I would do something great in future. In the municipal school, I learnt how to build a good character along with studies. The municipal schools are neat, clean and tidy, and even the teachers ensure that students come in neat and tidy uniforms,” Mayur Katariya said.

While education is absolutely free of cost for girls, boys are charged Rs 200 per year till class 10. For classes 11 and 12, the boys have to pay a one-time fee of Rs 1,000.

Suman vs Municipal board schools

SMC was the first civic body in Gujarat to run higher secondary schools. The civic body runs two school boards — the Municipal school board for students from classes 1 to 8, and the Suman High School board that runs secondary and higher secondary sections. The two boards are separate and function independently under the civic body. Different officials are deputed for the administration of both boards.

While Suman schools came into existence only 25 years ago, the Surat Municipal School Board was established in 1925 and runs 327 schools from classes 1-8 with a headcount of 1.71 lakh students across seven mediums — Gujarati, Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, English and Odia.

Overall, 13,477 students (6,184 boys and 7,293 girls) from classes 9 to 12 study across 23 Suman schools in Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, Odia, Urdu and English mediums. These include 2,730 students (1,116 boys and 1,614 girls) in Class 11 and Class 12 Commerce stream in Gujarati, Marathi and Hindi mediums across 49 classes. In the science stream, there are two classes with 103 students (43 boys and 60 girls).

This year, 5,338 students of the SMC-run higher secondary schools are sitting for class 10 and 12 board exams that commenced on March 11.

The state government annually sets aside Rs 900 crore — 80 per cent as grants — to run municipal schools till Class 8. For Suman schools, however, the funds are generated from various schemes of the state government and the budget increases around 10 per cent annually. The budget for the current year is at Rs 50 crore.

The uniforms at Suman and municipal schools are different. Both Suman and municipal schools are run on different, independent premises.