Corporates to set up 30 rural public schools

Corporates and business firms have agreed to set up about 30 rural public schools under a unique public private partnership initiative in Andhra at a meeting with the industry representatives held here on Monday.

The companies will be entering into MoUs with the government for setting up these schools from tomorrow onwards.

The meeting, third in the series, was attended by 250 people representing various companies and organisations.

Companies like Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Finolex, India Cements, Infotech besides other organisations have given their consent to set up these schools, officials said.

It may be recalled that the state government had recently invited industries to invest in establishing rural public schools while offering free land apart from sharing 50 per cent of the recurring expenditure in running the schools.

The basic idea behind the rural public schools is to provide standard education to children in rural areas on par with urban public schools.

While the private companies have to spend Rs 8-12 crore (Rs 80 to Rs 120 million) on building and other infrastructure for each school, the government would provide 30-50 acre land free of cost to the developers of these schools. The government intends to promote at least one such school in each assembly constituency.

More proposals are expected to come from the private players in the next few days when the government is expected to finalise the identification and allotment of land for these schools by the  week-end.