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.