Meeting of Planning Commission and HRD on PPP in Schools

Source : Times of India

These are few excerpts from TOI report on this meeting.

While Haldea brought about some changes like putting the burden of land and infrastructure on the private entity, it was felt that the proposed schools cannot start from class I. HRD minister Kapil Sibal said in the meeting held on Wednesday that these schools have to be from class V. Haldea's proposal that these schools should also be in urban areas was also not approved, with the minister saying that they should be in backward areas.

Haldea's new proposal said land for schools will have to be acquired by the private entity and that the state government will only facilitate the process. It also said that the private entity will have to bear the capital expenditure as well as pay for uniforms, textbooks and annual health check-up of students.

The financing formula proposed by Haldea said that of the total capacity of 2,000 students, 50% should be supported by the government. And at least 50% of the students should be from SC/ST/OBC while the remaining may be children of non-income tax payers. Besides, 25% of the students should be girls.

The recurring support in respect of academic activities should be fixed at Rs 1,600 per month per student based on the average expenditure being incurred by the government on a student in Kendriya Vidyalayas in 2009. Government support should last for 10 years and should vary between locations. Graduated support should be provided for different locations: 75% in metropolitan towns exceeding 30 lakh population, 90% in cities exceeding 10 lakh, 100% in towns exceeding one lakh, 120% in rural areas and 140% in north-east, J&K and tribal areas.

Mr. Haldea's model appears to be a very rigid and fixed formula. Wonder what would be the bidding criteria  for these PPP schools?

Another issue is what to do with the non performing schools? There should be some thought as to how these can be transformed using PPP models.

Why cant HRD ministry appoint a few transaction advisors to propose a few models or even hold workshps with private sector to get right feedback?