NEW DELHI: The proposed 6,000 model schools, announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his Independence Day speech last year, will have better infrastructure and teachers strength than the Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV).

The blueprint prepared by HRD Ministry for these schools, which will come up at each block headquarters in the country, says that there will be one teacher for 25 students in these institutions while the ratio in KVs is one teacher to 40 students.

"Not only teacher strength, these institutions will get all advanced facilities, including ICT equipment, facilities for sports, games, music and art and laboratory for mathematics, science and languages," sources said.

These schools will give equal importance to curricular and extra-curricular activities, including games, music, dance and art.

Of the 6,000 schools, 2,500 will be set up on public-private partnership basis while the rest would be established by the government.

The government will provide some grants for these 2,500 schools, while private companies will make contributions. The government is in the process of finalising the modalities for setting up of these schools on PPP mode.

For the rest 3,500 schools, the Centre will bear 75 per cent of the establishment cost and state government will provide 25 per cent of the cost, sources said.

The establishment cost for a school is about Rs three crore.

The process of setting up these institutions will start this year while the admission will start from the next session.

The government has earmarked Rs 12,750 crore for this purpose during the 11th Plan. This year alone, Rs 650 crore has been alloted for creating infrastructure for these schools.

As per the scheme, each block will have a model school which will look at comprehensive development of children. The pedagogy of teaching will be different from other schools, the sources said.

The focus will be to relate the textbook knowledge to the life beyond schools, sources said

State governments will decide the affiliations of these schools and medium of instructions. The criteria for giving admission to students are yet to be finalised.

Source : DNA