The State government has asked single management aided schools in the State to cough up 50% of their modernisation cost under the Challenge Fund established for this purpose.
The saving grace for these management schools is that they can source the government share from the Asset Management Fund of the local legislator if the budget allocation is not available under the Challenge Fund.
The Challenge Fund was originally mooted by the Finance Minister in his 2017 budget speech promising to earmark ₹50 crore as its corpus. According to the guidelines, the Challenge Fund will be available for the construction or repair of school buildings, renovating or establishing library or laboratory, smart classrooms, renovation of school stadiums, toilet construction, noon meal kitchen and dining hall and drinking water facilities as per an approved master plan.
Single-management schools from lower primary to higher secondary schools are eligible for funding subject to a limit of ₹1 core, including the government and management share, depending on the school category. The government has also fixed the minimum number of students needed for each of these categories in the rural and urban areas to be eligible for assistance.
The Challenge Fund will be available for schools in the coastal and tribal belts, welfare schools, but single management schools will get the first priority. Schools which had been selected for funding under the Public Education Rejuvenation Campaign (PERC), another scheme aimed at upgrading 1,000 schools as Centres of Excellence, will not be eligible for the Challenge Fund. Around 100 schools have already been selected under the PERC.
The State is in the midst of a controversy over closure of uneconomic schools, including aided. There is no data available on the number of aided schools under single management, but it is common knowledge that a large number of single management institutions are reeling under drop in enrolment of students owing to poor facilities and competition from indiscriminate sanctioning of schools in the unaided sector. Owners of single management schools say many of them did not have the ability to mobilise their share and had expressed their reservations about the operation of the Challenge Fund.
