New private schools applications in Gujarat dipped to the lowest in 2 years; courtesy Covid, new rules

Applications for new secondary and higher secondary private schools in Gujarat have fallen to their lowest level in the last two years due to the pandemic and revised rules. The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) has received about 350 applications for the academic session 2022-23 according to the data shared with Indian Express. Comparing the previous data, the number of applications received from trusts and organizations is just half of the applications received in the academic year 2020-21.

In the 2020 Batch, the number of applications received for opening new classes for the 10th and 12th were 600 while this year the number of applications received was 290. 

Gujarat Self-Financed School Management Federation President Bharat Gajipara said that the preference for enrolling in government schools is more over private ones. Families are still not able to recover from the financial burdens after the pandemic, cite both private and the approving authorities. The biggest reason for receiving few applications in new schools is the condition of parents affected due to covid-19 pandemic that is yet not stable. Hence, they prefer government schools over private ones.

On the other side, GSHSEB Chairman A J Shah also said similar words, he stated that the children are now being admitted to government and grant-in-aid schools than private ones. This is the only reason that the new schools are receiving less number of applications. ” It is presently natural selection keeping the re-examined guidelines for new private based school applications in 2019, Shah added.

Out of 350 new school applications received this year, 140 are for secondary and 210 are for higher secondary. Nearly 37 percent of applications have recently received provisional approval from GSHSEB and started their functioning too.

In 2018-2019, the education department revised rules for setting up the new school, affecting the number of students. Though these rules have not much affected the biggest and most reputed schools set up in the good areas. Most of the smaller ones in the middle and low economic strata areas that were largely opening till the pandemic have now stopped,  said Gajipara, who heads the federation of 9,000 private schools across Gujarat.