The Indian Express                     27.03.2013

AMC opens an English-medium public school

Ahmedabad Public School (APS), the first public school in Gujarat by a municipal corporation, opened in the city with a promise of providing English-medium primary education for just Rs 11, which is the one-time registration charge.

The school was announced recently by the Municipal Corporation which had allocated Rs 50 lakh for it in its school board, mainly to contain the drop-out rate and provide quality education to the underprivileged.

It will be the only such public school in the walled city in Shahpur area, which is a minority-dominated neighbourhood.

Registrations for the school opened on March 18 and till Tuesday, the school had received 31 admission forms from areas as far as Mirzapur, Kalupur and Dudheshwar from children with varied economic backgrounds.

"We had considered enrolling our daughter in a private school but had to drop the idea after we checked the fee. Then my husband told me about this school which he got to know from a banner put up near his office. Without paying a rupee if we are getting what we would after paying Rs 300 per month added with transportation cost, why should we not go for it?" said Rekha Pawar, mother of four-year-old Shanu who had come to register.

Rekha works at a jewellery showroom while her husband works as data entry operator in a private company. Though her elder daughter is studying in a Hindi-medium private school, the couple wanted English-medium education for Shanu.

The school authorities expect the number of registrations to increase after Holi. "Keeping in view the inauspicious Hola Ashtak period, we are expecting to receive more registrations in April. So we have opened admissions till April 28," said admission in-charge Bharat Bhavsar.

Another parent, Harish Lakhania from Kalupur, is seeking to admit his three-year-old son Nihal in the school after he learnt about it from other parents in his neighbourhood. Though he lives two kilometres away, Harish is eager to send his only son to an English-medium school.

"With a monthly salary of Rs 6,000, I cannot afford to send my son to a private school. We are not educated but we want our children to have the best of education that we can afford," he said.

Santosh Joshi, who runs a garage in one of the slum areas in Shahpur, too wants English-medium education for his five-year-old son Gaurav and APS has come as a boon for him. "Today, one has to know English or else he is not considered educated," he said.

The AMC plans to inaugurate the school on Akshay tritya (May 13) and start the formal academic session from June, as it is in a regular school. To begin with, APS will have classes from junior KG to class II and add a class each year. The number of students has been limited to 35 in each class.

The registration fee is Rs 11 and there is no tuition or admission fee. To start with, the school will have four teachers, one for each class.

School board chairperson Jagdish Bhavsar said the curriculum would be designed on the lines of English-medium private schools running in lower and middle income settlements including Shahpur, Girdharnagar and Saraspur, ".but with an edge".

The school will run from a double-storeyed 30-room building constructed as a part of earthquake relief project by the Karnataka government in 2001.

At present, Shahpur municipal school number 5, a lower primary school with 700 students, is run in the building in the afternoon while Shahpur municipal school number 6, the upper primary school (Class VI-VIII) with nearly 200-250 students, runs in the morning.

The APS will run on a staggered schedule. The kindergarten will run from 8:30-11 am and Classes I and II from 7:30-11:30 am.

The Indian Express                        25.03.2013

From new academic session, AMC board to add 132 schools

THE Ahmedabad municipal school board, that is already receiving flak for its declining number of schools and students, is all set to add 132 primary schools to its list. With the new academic session to start from June 2013, the municipal school board will have an addition of 132 primary schools to its existing list of 456 schools. While, 111 primary schools currently under zila parishad jurisdiction will be transferred under municipal school board, 21 new schools, all in Gujarati medium, are to come up in the city, majority in economically backwards areas.

The need for new schools was evaluated after a school mapping under Right to Education Act was conducted by the municipal school board, last year. The survey revealed the number of schools, areas where they would come up, expected student strength in each school along with the distance from existing nearest school. The new schools that are coming up in economically backward areas of east, south and north zones are the rehabilitated and migrated colonies from Sabarmati riverfront after it was vacated for the development work.

"The new schools identified in the city will cater to those areas where the nearest school is from 2-4 kilometres of distance. While, new buildings are being constructed at few places, remaining will start from a rented building ascertaining that these start from the coming academic session," said the municipal school board Chairman Jagdish Bhavsar.

The new areas where these 21 primary schools will come up include Bapunagar, Nikol ward, Rakhial, Vatwa, Behrampura, Danilimda, Khokhra, Lambha, Amraiwadi, Isanpur and Thakkarbapanagar. While, the estimated students comes out to be nearly 6,800 varying from 150 to 500 in each school.

One of the reasons cited for all new schools in Gujarati medium is the declining number of municipal Gujarati medium schools in the city. The total number of municipal schools has declined in last five years. From 471 schools in 2009, the number has declined to 456, this year.

Similarly, on the other hand, with the extension of Ahmedabad municipal corporation limits, as many as 111 primary schools that are presently running under zila panchayat education committee will come under the jurisdiction of Ahmedabad municipal school board. A total student strength of 36,729 enrolled in these schools along with 1,144 teachers will also be brought under municipal school board.

Talking about additional infrastructure and faculty requirement in these schools, the municipal school board administrative officer L D Desai said, "These requirements will be evaluated once these come under the AMC in June 2013 followed by a survey to be carried out in these 111 schools."

Out of these 111 primary schools, 52 with 15,950 student enrolment and 498 teachers are under Daskroi taluka while 19,336 students and 595 teachers from 51 schools are under city taluka. These include co-education, girls as well as boys schools majority running in Gujarati medium with hardly a few in Urdu and Hindi medium.

A few schools that were prior to the new AMC limits considered to be under Gandhinagar district will also come under municipal school board. These include eight schools from Chandkheda, Visat, Baglawadi, Motera, Pasharvanath nagar and Laxminagar areas including 1,443 students and 51 teachers.