Government schools to be privatized in Rajasthan

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has decided to privatize at least 300 government schools in the state.

In a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, chief minister Vasundhara Raje cleared the proposal to run these schools under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. There are nearly 9,895 secondary and senior secondary schools in the state.

“The policy does not extend to those located in cities, district headquarters and the Aadarsh Vidyalayas. Schools, which have recorded poor results, would be handed over to private partners,” said Rajasthan rural development minister, Rajendra Rathore at a media briefing.

It’s on a pilot basis that 300 schools in rural areas would be put up to be run on PPP mode, he added.

The government claims that all facilities provided to the students including the mid-day meals, no tuition fees and school books would continue and there would be no ‘extra burden’ on parents or students.

The private partners will invest Rs 75 lakhs on setting up the infrastructure, apart from providing teachers and other staff to class 1^st to 12^th.

However, the government will continue to own the school building and the operations of the school would be handed over for a span of 10 years, at the end of which it would be reviewed.

The government teachers and non-teaching staff currently working at these schools would be accommodated at other schools.

Similar polices are already functional in Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Since 2015, the introduction of PPP model has been worked upon by the state government. The policy claims to improve the quality in non-performing government schools. Even though it had received wide-scale criticism, the government cleared this policy without putting it up for public review.

The policy will start from the next academic session.