Municipal schools in Narendra Modi’s constituency set for privatisation

The state government,during the Vibrant Gujarat summit this year,had signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding with Zee Learning,a member of Essel Group,Mumbai,with AMC as the third party. To bring about changes in the quality of education,the MoU envisaged free education for the students in these schools in conformity with the latest trends in education.

Deputy municipal commissioner S K Langa said that every care would be taken to protect the interests of the children currently studying in the schools in question. “Each one of these children will be given free education without break in the new schools unlike the past when a portion of them was allowed study there. With total control on admissions being with us,there will be no compromise on these two basic conditions,” he said.

He said the teachers becoming surplus would be accommodated in the Board where 109 new schools were to be opened,taking the total number of civic schools to 571. Already two rounds of meetings have been held with government officials and Zee Learning representatives in this regard,Langa said. He added that municipal schools in other areas of the city can also be handed over to Zee Learning,which will hire its own staff.

The AMC Opposition,however,suspects a tacit understanding for handing over of possession of these 26 schools to the private party and that it would meet same fate as it did in the case of Meethakhali School later named as Mahatma Gandhi Public School. “The past bad experience of handing over civic schools to private parties is deterring enough not to experiment with poor children,” said Opposition leader Badruddin Shaikh.

He added that a meeting of parents whose children study in these schools would be called shortly to register protests and apprehensions about their as well as the teachers’ future.