Development of 20 ‘Bengaluru Public Schools’ to be taken up on a priority basis

Twenty schools in the city – 16 run by the Department of Primary and Secondary Education and four by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) – will get a complete facelift.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, in his Budget on Friday, announced ₹89 crore for the development of these schools as ‘Bengaluru Public Schools’. The project is being taken up with an aim to provide requisite infrastructure in these select schools towards improving quality of education.
R. Vishal, Commissioner of Public Instruction, said that the schools were chosen after a survey taken up jointly by the Bengaluru Urban Zilla Panchayat, the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, the BBMP, and the Azim Premji University.
“The project proposal and the detailed project report was submitted to the State Government around two months ago. It will be taken up on priority once the funds are released. The select schools are those in dense and underprivileged areas of the city. Though the schools have fair student enrolment, the physical infrastructure is not up to the mark,” he said.
The authorities hope that the development of the schools will lead to an increase in enrolment. “To begin with, we looked at the classrooms, staffrooms, play areas, toilets, compound wall etc.,” he said, and added that the objective was to work on the pedagogy as well. “First, to ascertain the learning level among the students of the school and the quality of teachers of the school. This is part of softer intervention under the project,” he added.
He also said while the cost per capita may seem high initially, it would be rationalised when enrolments increase.
The four BBMP schools chosen for the project are those in Cleveland Town, Mathikere, Padarayanapura and Vijayanagar. According to Umesh B.S., BBMP’s Assistant Commissioner (Education), said as per estimates, Rs 5 crore each will be spent on Cleveland Town, Mathikere and Padarayanapura schools and Rs 3 crore on the Vijayanagar school towards improving infrastructure.
The 16 government schools chosen for the project were spread across the city in some of the most underprivileged areas. “In many of these schools, we need more and better infrastructure. Once that is done, these schools will definitely see an increase in student enrolments,” he said.