ABOUT 2,500 higher secondary schools modelled on India's best performing public sector schools - Kendriya Vidyalayas - would come up from this financial year at a cost of Rs 9,900 crores, the Finance ministry has decided. The HRD ministry will soon seek approval from the Cabinet in this regard.

These 2,500 schools to come up in educationally backward blocks are part of 6,000 model schools announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year. The Planning Commission has earmarked Rs 21,486 crore for the 6,000 model schools in the 11th Plan.

Another 1,000 schools - 500 Kendriya Vidyalayas and 500 Navodaya Vidyalayas would also come up in educationally back- ward blocks so that all such blocks, num- bering 3,500, have at least one model school. For a Kendriya Vidyalaya, the Central government would be giving Rs 11 crore and for a Navodaya Vidyalaya, Rs 12 crore. Allocation is higher for Navodaya Vidyalayas because they provide boarding and lodging facilities, a ministry official ex- plained. The KVs and NVs would be fully funded by the Central government, the HRD ministry has decided.

For the 2,500 government-sponsored model schools, the Finance ministry has agreed that the Centre will bear 75 per cent of the expenditure and the remaining will have to be borne by the states. For the northeastern states, the Central government will bear 90 per cent of the expenditure.

Under the model scheme for 6,000 schools, another 2,500 schools will be opened in the Public Private Partnership (PPP), for which HRD ministry will hold first meeting with corporate sector next week.

These PPP schools will come up in the educationally better-off dis tricts. Ministry officials said many states like Punjab and Andhra Pradesh have already come out with their PPP models for improving school education.

The government would consider them before deciding scheme for Public Private Partnership in schools. However, a top Planning Commission official said that the fee structure for these schools was the biggest issue to be sorted out with the corporate sector.

Ministry officials said once the scheme is approved by the Cabinet proposals would be invited from the state governments to open model schools aimed at improving quality of education in public sector schools.

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