The Indian Express                09.12.2013

AMC schools goes on in full swing

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), that is reeling under
student dropout and faculty crunch, is going full pace with construction
of at least two dozen new schools in city. While four recently
completed school buildings are awaiting inauguration, construction work
started on others whose foundations were laid over a week back.

The new buildings are in Ellisbridge, Dani limda and Vasna are expected to be inaugurated after Diwali vacations.

“Once the Diwali vacations are over, the municipal school board
plans to undertake massive work for new schools. While financial
assistance from Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) would be taken, NGOs would
also be roped in for running these schools, specially in economically
backward areas,” said AMC School Board Chairman Jagdish Bhavsar. At
present, there are 456 municipal schools with 1.6 lakh students in
Ahmedabad.

As per the plans, bhumipujan (rituals) of a new 10-room school
building at Piplaj area in Narol with assistance from SSA would be done
after Diwali. At present, a primary school is running since January 2012
in a pre-fabricated structure. This caters to nearly 450 children of
rehabilitated families from Sabarmati riverfront.

Another school with approval from AMC Building Committee and
Standing Committee is scheduled to start construction in Vatva. Also, a
new school in Narol village was started in June, this year. Majority of
these new schools will offer Gujarati as the medium of instruction.

The new schools are coming up in economically backward areas of
east, south and north zones of Ahmedabad. These are the areas where
rehabilitated and migrated colonies are settled from Sabarmati
riverfront after the area was vacated for the development work and some
of the slum areas from where Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) corridors
are passing.

Already, development projects like Bus Rapid Transit System
(BRTS) and Sabarmati riverfront has led to decline in student enrolment
in municipal schools. For instance, there are nearly 30 municipal
schools around Sabarmati riverfront. The number of students in these
schools, till the rehabilitation of slums, was around 10,000. However,
after the demolition of slums in October 2011, the number drastically
fell by more than 50 per cent.

Further, according to the study conducted by the municipal school
board, the construction of BRTS corridors across the city proved to be a
hindrance in children commuting to school. “Small children failed to
cross the barricaded BRTS corridors. Also, their parents sceptical of
traffic, did not allow them to commute to schools resulting in
dropouts,” Bhavsar said.

The areas where these new primary schools will come up include
Bapunagar, Arbudanagar, Nikol ward, Rakhial, Vatva Behrampura,
Danilimda, Khokhra, Lambha, Amraiwadi, Rajpur, Isanpur and
Thakkarbapanagar. With a nearby school distance of 1-5 km, the estimated
students calculated by the municipal school board is nearly 6,800
varying from 150 to 500 in each school.