Mohandas Gandhi Vidyalaya among 130 schools to face 25% grant cut

The decision means the school will lose Rs 15 lakh per year. And,if the poor show continues,it is likely to see a cut in grant meant for payments to teachers,including salary and perks.

The school gets grants in four quarters — July,September,December and March.

Deo officials maintained that MGV had been registering below 30 per cent results in Class X for at least three years now. According to them,government schools and those supported by grant-in aid in Rajkot generally get students with poor education background.

And MGV,despite its past glory,has been no exception. “Most of the students here belong to poor families,who also have poor primary education background,” said a top official from the school.

Last year,a total of 968 schools (where pass percentage was below 30) in 25 districts of the state were served notices to pull up their socks. Most of these schools were in Rajkot district.

Following this,the Gujarat State Secondary Education Board embarked on a mission to improve the education standard in these schools in November 2008. As a first step,notices were served to each school asking to prepare an action plan,considering the limitations and problems the schools faced.

The common action plan included holding regular teachers-parents meetings,making parents read answersheets of their wards,faculty exchange programmes with other government schools with good track records,upgrading laboratory and library if required,and finding innovative ways to generate students interest in studies.

Established by local British agent Kernel Singh in 1853,it is one of the oldest educational institutions in the county and the first English medium school in Saurashtra. Initially,it was known as Alfred High School. The school was renamed as MGV after Gandhi studied here between 1880 and 1887.

The school has been conducting various programmes with involvement of students for two years now,but in vain. The authorities here have holding a Zero Period,wherein students study for an extra period on a regular basis. It had even distributed simplified course material to make learning easy and interesting.