32.

From: Prashant.M.Jha@relianceada.com

This is very good programme indeed and one can experiment with it. Through public-private mechanism it can prove its worth. The only problem with government institution is regarding its governance in good manner and towards public interest. As you know- how vigilance and all other supervisory functions are running in this country, it will achieve for what it is call for. I wish that you and many of the other organisations could well take it and provide community with its full fledged benefits.

33.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PLANNED BY BMC-MCGM FOR                                                                      

                                                     MUNICIPAL SCHOOLS

While the draft scheme for public-private partnership prepared by BMC appears to be good, it suffers from a number of lacunae pointed out below that require clarifications.

1. The introduction to the draft speaks of three types of programs visualized by BMC. However, from the details given for two of them,’ The School Adoption Program’ and ‘School Partnership program’ they appear to be practically the same except that in the second case BMC envisages the NGO to undertake the responsibility for running and maintaining the school in collaboration with Corporates and or individuals.  No details are given for ‘School Support Program’. If the BMC envisages the Public (NGOs/Corporates/individuals) to undertake the responsibility for running the schools at  different levels of financial and management participation, the three different  level of participation should be specified in clear terms.

2. The draft does not specify what will be the level of participation of BMC and what facilities it undertakes to provide and its responsibilities in running and maintaining the schools. This also should be part of the agreement.

3. From the draft it appears that, in both ‘Adoption’ and Partnership” levels of participation, while the BMC expects the NGOs to undertake almost the entire responsibility, both financial and management, for running and maintaining the school, .it also expects the NGO  to abide and follow the curricula it provides and submit the accounts to BMC to be audited with the power to terminate the agreement if it finds that “the private party is functioning in a manner deemed detrimental to the interests of the students” This does not seem to be quite fair and is arbitrary.

4. It is very unlikely the NGOs will have the financial resources or the capability to administer schools and will have to depend on Corporates to provide the finance and the expertise. It is very doubtful whether Corporates will be prepared to provide these resources without a permanent stake in the schools and have the liberty to run the school to suit their corporate philosophy.

5. The draft stipulates that the schools should be run on the basis of curricula to be provided by BMC. This stipulation could introduce an element of politics in preparing the curricula, depending on the agenda of the political party controlling the BMC, as it is happening in the sphere of higher education.  It also denies the NGOs and Corporates the opportunity to introduce modern techniques and innovations in primary education. It is necessary to evolve and specify a broad based mechanism consisting of eminent educationists and representatives of institutions, immune to political pressures, for drawing up and updating the curricula regularly.

6. There is an urgent necessity to involve street children and children of slum dwellers in education by offering inducements, if necessary. The draft is silent in this regard. Similarly, it is necessary to take steps to involve children confined in children’s and beggar’s homes with stress on hands-on work experience.

7. The draft stipulates that “BMC will ensure that the CURRENT LEVEL of expenditure being incurred on the school (relating to housekeeping expenses, repair expenses, etc.) will be CONTINUED AT PAR WITH OTHER SCHOOLS and the Local Managing Committee will take all decisions involving such expenditure.” The import of this statement is not clear. Does it mean that the contribution of BMC to all the schools will be the same irrespective of its size, number of students and teachers or condition and status of school buildings, etc?

8. The draft does not provide any avenues for contribution by interested individuals who may want to get involved in the education of local children except through some NGOs. It is necessary to establish avenues for the involvement of individual philanthropists for offering scholarships, stipends, sponsoring sports teams, etc.

9. The number of English medium schools appears to be too small. With English gaining more and more importance it is also necessary to introduce English as a second language in other medium schools too.

I.S.Rao.   

raois@...

34.

From: mohan siroya

I have gone thru' the PPGC blue print of DMC (Education ). On paper it appears laudable .

In  80's when I was heading the LIONS CLUB OF MAHAKALI (Andheri East) , we had adopted the Municipal school at that place, although there was no such formal programme of joint management. Now also Lions Clubs or Ratary Clubs can adopt and donate whatever they can earmark as a part of charitable activities. But the efforts remain far from rewarding

However, as our experience or for that matter, everyone else's experience goes, the  teaching standard of these Municipal schools have fallen to the pits for various factors, including bureaucracy, red tape or lack of funds . It is apparent from the "Student =Teacher" ratio given that basically what these schools lack is the shortage of competent, qualified teachers . How can one expect a teacher to meritoriously teach 81 students at a time ?   On the one hand, the Government of Maharashtra has made a new policy to introduce English  at a primary, secondary or at all levels , but without qualified English teachers. On the other hand, the Govt. as  well as the High  Court makes  compulsory to  use only Marathi language even for delivering judgments. This is the contradiction of highest order. When you have not taught the quality Marathi at any level, then how the judges or even advocates will proceed in Marathi ? Will  the Govt. introduce Marathi medium at law achools and law books in Marathi? Or are they going to keep specially qualified interpreters/ translators at the cost of public exchequer? The authorities will do better to spend in giving quality education with student -pupil ratio at 1 to 25 . But before that it must decide what it wants as a policy and must stick to that at all levels. The number of students joining these schols have been deterorating fast and it will continue unless the Government or BMC wakes up. Why the open spaces earmarked for these schools or for the public gardens/ playgrounds are every day given as a largesse to builders, with or without modification of the rules?  Why shanties/ jhopadpattis are allowed on these open spaes, and then get protection for ever?  When the State property itself is being given to commercial interests, how it can expect the poor NGOs to provide to the Government / Municipal schools?

It will be good to address these concerns first by the authorities 

Mohan Siroya 
mohansiroya@hotmail.com

35.

From: suraj prasad

1. Why will private parties partner with Municipal/Government Schools?

2. They can do so only when there is profit. It would be benefitting the private players more than the poor students. In India education upto class 12 level in schools should be compulsory and free in Municipal/Government Schools especially for BPL students.

surajcap@yahoo.com
 

[1. because NGOs think differently than you do....... Vinay]

36.

From: Muhammad Mukhtar Alam

Follwing area need to be included for convergence...

-Implementation of the Central Assistance for the appointment of Urdu teachers in localities with Muslim population..

-Use of donated computers for ensuring access to ICT enabled information and capacity in all the schools..Donated computers can be obtained from organisations such as www.worldcomputerexchange.org  Please get in touch if interested.

-Promotion of ecological audit of the consumption pattern through its inclusion in the curricula..Ecologial Audit is a concept proposed by the undersigned. Centre for Ecological Audit, Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) may be contacted for development of the needful content and capacity building modules..

Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam

mukhtaralam2000@yahoo.com

37.

From: Lee Havis

I have briefly read the document on private-public school operation.  As I understand it, I think it will have very limited value, and more likely little participation from private groups.  The problem is that BMC retains ownership and substantial control; while the private NGO has to make all the financial and in-kind physical contributions.  While the idea of setting up a three-member board is interesting as an alternative to total control by BMC, the policies of the BMC prevail to a significant extent.

How if the parent representative selected?  If the parent representative on the board sides with BMC on policy (and parents can be strongly influenced by the power of government control and authority), then the NGO representative can do little as a minority voice.  Giving money without control or even a significant voice is not a formula to inspire investment and participation.

A better plan would be for BMC to establish a means for private groups to bid on taking over the school, based on a significant number of parents in agreement.  The BMC could set broad general policy and oversee and audit money, but control should be in the hands of the NGO.  If the NGO has no flexibility to hire and train staff, set budget priorities, there is not much meaningful control or opportunity to change anything that is active at present.  If BMC doesn't provide enough funds to provide even basic furniture or building or utilities, then again, I doubt that any NGO is going to take much interest.  Serious NGO's would just start their own private schools, and forget trying to work within the BMC controlling structure.

Under the plan I propose, the NGO would have to enroll parents in sufficient numbers to pay for cost of the facilities and salaries.   Each child should be funded as a "voucher" on a per-pupil basis for payment from BMC.  Then, the NGO can decide how much to spend for furniture, salaries, teacher trraining, etc.  As it is, I doubt that BMC would provide sufficient per-pupil funding to even cover basic necessities of a building to house children on a daily basis.  Asking the NGO to provide all these costs and the risks besides, is not an attractive offer.

Lee Havis
International Montessori Society (USA)
havis@erols.com

38.

From: gwaman

Karmayog may participate in the support scheme for municipal schools by way of arranging education programmes, training programmes for students, teachers and parents and by arranging educational tours

Gee Waman
gwaman@indiatimes.com

["Karmayog" does not have such capabilities as an org. We act as a platform and a bridge for interested individuals and orgs. Regards, Vinay]

39.

 Name  : Sameer shah

 Organisation (if any) : visan trust
 Email : shilpa.sameer@...
 Telephone :
 Subject : public private partnership

 Message  : I would like to know - in a nutshell - what the private organisation gets for doing all the items that are listed in the MOU? can it collect fees? add a private school "wing" to the public school? use facilities for other classes on a chargeable basis?

40.

School Adoption is fine, and it is great that BMC actually released a public
document for discussion, but the Group should also be examining the issue of
school adoption in the larger context: what does it mean? is it sustainable?
is it merely applying stop-gap solutions, as once the adoption ends, then
what? Are we saying that the system is a failure, so lets adopt and apply
our own systems, etc. Just going ahead and adopting a school, could be
actually senseless - why are they not doing their jobs in the first place?

Unless there is an overall vision / strategy / policy for BMC Education
within which School Adoption is one facet, it is likely to be a pretty
redundant exercise - 5 years down the line, when the adoption ends, the
system may be even more crippled than it is today, because of the adoption
programme.