Ahmedabad: Speaking during the budget discussion for the Amdavad Municipal Corporation (AMC)’s school board, the opposition Congress leader Jagdish Rathod said that only 6.78 percent of the total proposed allocation for the school board budget is going to be spent on the development of children. He said out of the Rs. 1143 crore estimate of the budget for 1.73 lakh students across 450 AMC-run schools, only Rs. 77.50 crore will be for the development of children, while the rest of the budget will be spent on salaries and establishment. Rathod, who himself is associated with the AMC school, further pointed out that in last year’s annual budget, Rs. 80 crore, which equals 7.31 percent of the total budget, was spent on students.

Rathod said in 2001 there were 563 AMC-run schools when the city’s population was 35.20 lakh; against this, in 2025 there are 450 AMC schools when the city’s population as per the 2011 census is 55.77 lakh. While the population increased, the number of schools went down by 113. Rathod further said that in 2020, over 100 schools of district panchayats of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar were added to the AMC-run school board, but even considering that, the total number of AMC-run schools has gone down when compared between 2001 and now. Rathod said 93 AMC school buildings are shut. 2 schools are handed over to private trusts—thus, a total of 95 schools have gone out of the hands of AMC.

Rathod went on to say that only 114 schools have water feeder staff, and only 40 schools have guards (pagi). There’s no regular cleaning staff in any schools, and Rs. 1400 is given for temporarily hired cleaning persons.

Rathod said he visited a school where children were out playing on the ground. When inquired, he said he was told that children were out as repairing work was underway in the school building. Only 3 out of 8 teachers were present in the school. Rathod said – the AMC school board is conspiracy board to ruin the future of children of the city. He commented, What would happen just by chanting Jay Shri Ram slogans? Do the tasks you are assigned to by voters.

Rathod questioned AMC’s dictate to school staff to attend the government functions at the cost of childrens’ education. He said the AMC school staffers are asked to attend the government functions compulsorily. So what happens is the school principal and teachers and all from Odhav or Singarva areas are asked to attend the function of Gandhinagar Lok Sabha. They go early as per instructions, and the dignitary comes late, and meanwhile the children are taken care of by the security guard of the school. The teachers who have to attend such functions often complain that they can’t carry even a water bottle in such functions for security reasons and have to spend hours waiting for the function to start and end.

Rathod listed out the promises in the previous annual school board budget and pointed out that out of the Rs 1 crore estimate for vocational training and skill development, zero sum was spent. A Rs. 3.10 crore sum was provisioned for skill training to parents of Signal school kids; only Rs. 4,000 was spent. Out of Rs. 75 lakh provisioned for sports activities, not a single rupee was spent. A Rs. 10 lakh allocation was made for Dada Dadi no Otlo, but zero rupees were spent. A Rs. 25 lakh estimate was given for academic strength enhancement advisor and core group formation, but zero was spent. A Rs. 50 lakh estimate was given for science-related practical activities, but zero rupees were spent. A Rs. 10 lakh estimate was given for leadership and school management training to students, but zero was spent. A Rs. 15 lakh allocation was made for mother language awareness plans, but zero Rupee was spent. Rs. 25 lakh was allocated for karate, yoga, and self-defense training, but nothing was spent. A Rs. 3 crore allocation was made for universal color, but zero Rupee was spent.

Rathod further said that Rs. 10 crore budget was allocated for school dresses of children in April, but its implementation was done in January this year, and the 8th class students were given t-shirts of 5th class students. Rathod displayed one such t-shirt during his speech.

Rathod alleged discrimination between the AMC school board students in the city’s eastern and western areas. He said Stri Shakti Sanstha has been given a contract of Rs. 21 crore annually to cater mid-day meals to 1.27 lakh students across 329 schools in East Ahmedabad since 2006, while Akshay Patra has been given a contract to cater mid-day meals to 43,000 students across 121 schools in West Ahmedabad since 2007 for Rs. 8.25 crore. Rathod read out the daily menus to give a comparative picture of what the students of East and West Ahmedabad-based AMC-run schools get every day. He said the West Ahmedabad schools get better mid-day meals, while East Ahmedabad students face discrimination, even when AMC spends the same amount in both cases. DeshGujarat

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