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.