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In pursuit of “needed” resources?

The Collector claims that commercial development of school properties is necessary for generating resources for education. Inherent to this premise are two assumptions. Firstly, there are indeed no other (less “radical”) avenues for garnering resource for necessary improvements in education. Secondly, mechanisms of commercial development ensure that profits are indeed ploughed back into school education. In Indore, both these assumptions merit closer scrutiny.

Regarding the assumption of non-existent alternatives, it is noteworthy that sources claim that ever since the Panchayati Raj system has come in, allocations for government schools are not being fully utilized. For schools in Indore Rs.70,000 from the state and nearly 5.5 lakhs from the ministers’ PR fund were made available. It is claimed that these funds were disbursed to various schools, but have not been used. Some schools have spent the money only on paper. Others such as the girls PS in Sirpur have returned the funds allotted (Nav Bharat, July 1). Surely the administration must utilize available funds before exploring new sources. What is the guarantee that proceeds from commercial development, even if made over to schools, will not meet the same fate of non-utilization as current funds?

Regarding the assumption of benefits for schools, it needs to be mentioned that in the recent past there have already been cases of commercial development of school properties. 1415 and 756 sqm of school land were “developed” (through construction of shops) by, respectively, IMC and IDA on grounds of raising resources for schools. They have earned, respectively, 48 and 68 lakhs of net profit. Add interest and you get about 2 crores. More recently IDA has proposed commercial development (in the guise of “environmental improvement”) in 4 more schools (Dainik Bhaskar, February 24), including Malharashram which was referred to by the collector (see Box-9). These earlier interventions and proposals were not discussed at the meeting that approved the collector’s commercialization proposal, which is not surprising, considering that none of the profits from them were ploughed back into schools! It is claimed that 1.5 lakh (out of the profit of 2 crores) has been kept aside for education (Dainik Bhaskar, June 2). Education Department’s officers hesitate to speak about commercialization proposals. On much probing, an official admitted that this has been happening in the past but the schools have not gained anything from this (Nav Bharat, July 1). There is hardly anything in the track record of the current regime to suggest that things will be different this time around.