Faced with rising dropout rates at its vernacular schools, the BMC has decided to hand over defunct ones to reputed private trusts run by multinationals. Senior BMC officials said 35 such civic schools will be on offer in the first phase of its new Full School Management with Private Partner Teachers (FSMPT) policy.
Already, Reliance and Mahindra groups have shown interest in signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the civic body. The MoU will be divided in two parts: Full School Support (FSS) allowing partner to facilitate BMC schools, Specific Services Partnerships (SSP) to ensure quality of curricular and co-curricular activities.
“We want to revive defunct vernacular schools and bring in a profession approach to teaching. The idea is to raise the overall educational standards to bring them on par with professionally run private schools,” Idzes Kundan, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC said.
As per the FSMPT policy passed by Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta last week, private trusts who take over defunct schools will bring their own teachers and funds. The private partner will be selected by a expert committee to sign a 10-year MoU, and will have to present a detailed plan, specify teaching methods and show their ability to generate funding.
Conditions set for private partners include adherence to right to education (RTE) rules, no fees for students, no private use of school structures, to use own pedagogy, material and teaching programme. They will also be asked to carry out minor repairs at their own costs, provide a library and science lab and run parent community development activities. “We will be asking them to source funding from philanthropic sources. The schools will be evaluated periodically to ensure standards,” Ms. Kundan said.
