India - To set up 6,000 model schools

Giving a boost to school education, the Centre has proposed to set up 6,000 model schools which would match the standards of the Kendriya Vidyalayas in terms of infrastructure and other facilities. A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved the proposal to set up the model schools at the block level at an estimated cost of Rs 9,321 crore during the 11th Plan period.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made an announcement to this effect during his Independence Day speech last year. The cost sharing pattern would be 75 per cent for the Centre and 25 per cent for the state governments. The Centre’s share in the total expenditure comes to around Rs 7,457 crore.

In the first phase, 2,500 schools would be set up through the state governments in educationally-backward blocks, Minister of State in PMO Prithviraj Chavan told reporters here. “The model schools will have infrastructure and facilities at least of the standards of the Kendriya Vidyalayas,” he said, adding that the pupil-teacher ratio and curriculum would also match the standards of the Central Schools.

As per the scheme prepared by the HRD Ministry, each block would have a model school which would look at comprehensive development of children. The schools would give equal importance to curriculur and extra-curricular activities including games, music, dance and arts.

The scheme will be implemented throughout the country except in six poll-bound states where it will be enforced after the poll process was completed.