As a welcome move, the Maharashtra government has decided to allot nearly 1,000 new primary English-medium schools in the state.
The department had to restrict this allotment against the 2,618 shortlisted applications due to the dearth of qualified teachers. These schools are likely to start functioning from 2014-15 and will be governed under the Self Financed School Act, which is expected to be passed in December 2012.
The cabinet sub-committee of school education had, on Thursday, decided to allot the English-medium schools based on the population of the area.
According to this decision, the councils will be allotted 2 to 4 schools, while the municipal corporations will be allotted up to 10 schools based on the size of the population and based on based on these parameters, only 1,000 schools are expected to be allotted.
Moreover, of the 5,000 plus applications received by the department in 2010, the department had shortlisted 2,618 applications for consideration by the sub-committee. It had then decided to restrict the number even further considering the shortage of the necessary number of qualified teachers. The minister of state for school education, Fauziya Khan, pressed for this limited allotment.
According to an officer from the school education department, the schools will first be given a letter of intent for the completion of the infrastructure and logistic needs and after 18 months, a state level committee will inspect the premises before giving the school permission to commence.
“The institutions with their own land and building will be considered for the letter of intent,” he said. The officer added that the schools will not be given any kind of the government aid.
Of the 75,468 primary schools in Maharashtra, only 6.90% are English-medium schools. The decision to allot new schools will help increasing this number.
The highest number of the applications, i.e. 205, was from Nagpur, followed by 188 from Ahmednagar, 174 from Thane and 155 from Aurangabad.
The allotments in Mumbai will be done by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
