Why are school unions in Gujarat opposing the government’s PPP mode schools?

What are these PPP mode schools

These model schools will be run on the principle of janbhagidaari. Four hundred Gyan Setu Day Schools with total student capacity of 500 will be started, beginning with 70 students in Class 6. Fifty Swami Vivekanand Gyan Shakti Residential Schools and 50 Swami Vivekanand Gyan Shakti Tribal Residential Schools with a total capacity of 2,000 students each will be started, enrolling 300 students in the first year in Class 6. Lastly, 10 Raksha Shakti Residential Schools with a total student strength of 500 will be started, beginning with 70 students in the first year in Class 6.

While these schools will offer free of cost education to students, the state government will re-imburse Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000 per student annual cost plus yearly hike of 7 per cent for recurring costs to private entities.

The private bodies are allowed to use their existing infrastructure or set up additional as per the minimum criteria.

The people behind the protest

Twenty associations have voiced their concerns on the issue. These represent nearly one lakh teaching and non-teaching staff from over 18,000 secondary and higher secondary grant-in-aid and private schools, and 300 government schools. Furthermore, two lakh teachers from over 32,000 government primary schools are also a part of the protest.

Privatisation of education

The major issue cited by these state level associations – mandals and mahamandals – of teachers, school management and principals of government, grant-in-aid and self financed schools, has been the decline in enrollment in government and grant-in-aid schools. This has led to teachers and principals being declared ‘surplus’ and relieved.

The associations have alleged that the government wants to withdraw its support from district panchayat and corporation run schools and promote privatisation of education. As an alternative, the associations have suggested that these ‘model’ schools be started within government schools where infrastructure is already available.

However, according to the state government, these new schools will not only improve standards of existing government schools but also exponentially help in enrollment in government schools in the state. It has also argued that the government’s expenditure for funding such schools is “minimal” as the entire infrastructure is funded and built using private capital.

Some other issues

The committee is calling the new schools as a “double expenditure” for the state government as it is already giving grants to grant-in-aid schools. The funding being given to the ‘model’ schools can instead be given to the government and grant-in-aid schools to improve the infrastructure and learning levels of students, the associations say.

The entrance exam for admission to the ‘model’ schools is also said to be in violation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the associations have claimed. While these schools are for “bright” students who will be selected through an entrance exam, weaker students will be left behind, they have added.

It is “injustice”, the associations also say, as students “prepared” by the government and grant-in-aid schools till Class 5 will be selected by the state government through the entrance test. The state education department has announced a common entrance test to be held on April 27, for students of government and grant-in-aid schools from Class 1 to 5 to be eligible for Class 6 admission in these schools for which a total of 5,35,169 students have registered.

The associations have rather suggested that the weaker students in the government and grant-in-aid schools should be admitted to these PPP mode schools and provided latest technological education so that they get benefit of such facilities which will increase their learning levels.

“If good students will be given to these schools then parents and remaining students will feel disappointed and de-motivated. This will lead to closure of more schools. what is the future of students in interior and backward areas”, listed out the Akhil Gujarat Rajya Shala Sanchalak Mahamandal in its 14-point presentation.

A long list of pending issues

The state government has called the protest as an “opportunity” for these associations to get their pending demands met.

The long time demand by the grant-in-aid schools is the abolition of the result-based grant policy where grant-in-aid schools are given their grants depending on the Class 10 board results. The grant-in-aid schools have questioned the logic behind them being governed by the “result based” grant eligibility when these PPP mode schools will get all the “bright” students.

Furthermore, the Gujarat State Principal Association has listed out that thousands of vacancies, from principals to administrative staff, in more than 2000 grant-in-aid secondary and higher secondary schools, directly impacting the quality of education. This is despite repeated promises from the state government, first in February, then in March of this year, regarding the appointment of principals in the state.

The real fear

“Due to the result based grant policy of the state government the grant-in-aid schools are closing down slowly as the government is not appointing teachers regularly and thus results are declining leading to grant cuts faced by these schools. This majorly affects rural, poor and interior and needy students. The issue was discussed with the former education minister and finance minister and agreed to be withdrawn but this too is pending at the CM’s level. This should be done immidiately”, the Principal Association stated.

Furthermore, pay protection for appointments after 2009 and non-implementation of dearness allowance announced by the central government in July 2022 and January 2023 are some of the leading causes of teacher dissatisfaction.

The Akhil Gujarat Rajya Shala Sanchalak Mahamandal has also listed out a number of other pending issues, including the recruitment of non-teaching staff, freedom of the schools in making appointments, hikes in the grants given by the state government, the minimum fee charged by private schools under fee regulation policy, converting Gujarati-medium classes to English medium as per demand, issues regarding transfers, and exemptions given to minority schools.