The Gujarat education department has decided to set an order of priority for allocation of grants to private schools. The decision follows an internal analysis of distribution of grants to private schools at secondary and higher secondary level that established disproportionate allocation of funds, the highest being in the urban areas. The department has listed down the priorities where reserved categories, including Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), Economically Backward Blocks (EBB) and only girls schools would be given preference for release of funds, both maintenance as well as salary grants, to over 3,400 private secondary and higher secondary schools. Confirming the analysis of release of funds, Schools Commissioner Mukesh Kumar admitted, “The department has realised that private schools in urban areas are the maximum beneficiaries of government funds while the ones that actually need these are lagging behind. Thus, this linking of grant to various categories has been laid down to bring in uniformity and parity in availing of government funds by private schools.” [related-post] It is to be noted that this is the second revision to be brought in the grant policy in the last 13 years. The education department, through a government resolution in August 2013, had brought about a change in the eleven-year-old grant-in-aid policy, though inflation was cited as the reason for the revision of the policy. The grant was increased to merely 33 per cent, linking it only to the performance of schools which received much flak from the sanchalak mandals (management committees) of private schools. As per the list, the reserved category of ST tops the requirement of funds by private schools. This implies that private schools with more than 50 per cent ST students top the preference for grants in secondary and higher secondary classes. This is not all. The second category includes schools with more than half the enrolment strength of ST students, but in non-tribal areas. After ST, schools with more than 65 per cent students under Other Backward Classes (OBC) category are to be given priority. The reserved social categories are followed by economical standards as schools in Economically Backward (EB) areas and talukas, identified as Economically Backward Blocks (EBBs), listed out by the Cowlagi Report, are to be considered. However, the maximum number of private secondary schools (1,917 schools) not included under any of these above categories and listed as others have been ranked at the last spot. Further, apart from these categories, release of funds to private schools would also vary with performance of students in Class X board examinations. “As per the new policy, the three-year result of Class X board, starting from 2015, would be considered. The check list would include students appeared in the exams and fixing the limit to more than 70 per cent result,” revealed a senior education department official. Grant-in-aid schools with less than 30 per cent result in either Class X or XII will not be eligible for any maintenance grant at all. Schools with 70 per cent and above result will be eligible for 100 per cent grant. One increment of both the principal and subject teachers will also be deducted if the previous three years’ overall school result and individual subject result, respectively, are less than 30 per cent.
