Article in Indian Express discusses how Maharashtra Government schools put in effort to get support and funding from local community. Apart from supplementing government school grants, this can also help build the school community relationship
regards Guru, IT for Change -------------------------------- Ten new computers, a new toilet block for girls, a new water filtration system and a brand new science laboratory are just some of the recent additions to a small Marathi-medium school — Hutatma Umaji Naik High School in Bhivadi village of Purandar taluka. Headmaster Sudhakar Babanrao Jagdale is proud to say that not a single penny for these services came from the government funds. “In the last two years, we raised over Rs 11 lakh through public participation. Some of it came from corporates who wanted to do social service but the majority of funds came from villagers. We had recently issued an appeal to the village folk to help us upgrade our school so that children don’t get attracted to English medium schools which offer better facilities,” he said. Public participation towards the cause of education is evident in a report available with Maharashtra State Council of Education Research and Training, which shows that from June 2015 to March 2016, 18,000 government schools in Maharashtra raised over Rs 75 crore through public participation alone. These funds have gone towards improvement of basic services in schools from new school buildings to toilets, playgrounds and computer rooms. According to the data shared by the MSCERT, schools in Solapur got maximum public participation where over 2,800 schools raised above Rs 10,000 each, while Ahmednagar (1,700) and Ratnagiri (1,500) came next. Of the 18,215 schools in Maharashtra that raised a total of Rs 75 crore collectively, the maximum funds were raised in Solapur (Rs 6.55crore) followed by Nashik (Rs 5.69crore) and Ratnagiri (Rs 5.5 crore), amongst others. In Pune district, 1,157 schools managed to raise Rs 3.82 crore collectively. The worst performance was seen in Latur municipal corporation limits where only one school reported having received Rs 15,000 from public participation. “While the government does provide for teacher salaries and basic services at schools and has now introduced several welfare schemes, quality education must eventually be a community initiative. Recently, the state government had asked for the data on schools that brought improvement in infrastructure by raising funds through public participation and we calculated it to Rs 75 crore. It is heartening to see many individuals and corporates come forward this year,” said Govind Nandede, director, MSCERT. Principals of rural schools that have managed to raise funds underline the importance of this process. “Before we had appealed for public participation, our school building was in shambles and we had only six divisions. Today, we run 15 divisions, thanks to a new school building which we built completely through public participation. We didn’t accept a single rupee in cash but told people what we need and to pay the contractors directly. Two of our former students recently levelled our entire playground which was not maintained properly and made pitches on it. I think if we had to pay, it would have cost us Rs 11 lakh. We would have to wait for years if we wanted government to provide us these funds. Today, people look at it as just a new building, we see it as lesser school students dropping out to go to fancier schools,” said Dattatreya Jadhav, headmaster of Shree Chattrapati Shivaji Shala in Maval taluka’s Shivali village source http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/maharashtra-schools-raised-rs-75-cr-through-public-participation-in-1-yr-2789863/#sthash.5sHVTiZG.dpuf regards, Guru, IT for Change, Bengaluru www.ITforChange.net -- EnglishSTF Link: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/englishstf -- *For doubts on Ubuntu and other public software, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions **Are you using pirated software? Use Sarvajanika Tantramsha, see http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Public_Software ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಇಲಾಖೆಗೆ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ ***If a teacher wants to join STF-read http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Become_a_STF_groups_member --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "EnglishSTF" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to englishstf+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to englishstf@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/englishstf. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/englishstf/CANJf2f_5jPNPDzYLP_wxkOEG9tE8Bf-rFxru8h1GN3L3Vyi32A%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
