Citing fund crunch, pvt firm closes five Adarsh schools

BARNALA:FCS Foundation, which is managing five Adarsh schools with total student strength of about 10,000, has closed down the institutes, citing financial non-viability and the government’s failure to reimburse its 70% share of operational cost.

“The school will remain closed till further orders,” said a communique to principals of all five FCS-managed schools last month. While other private schools in the region opened for the new session in April, these schools are still closed.

Adarsh schools, a dream project of the Akali government, were launched in 2011 to provide quality education in rural areas in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. As many as 26 such schools were opened initially, but later private parties withdrew from management committees of 10 schools. At present, 16 Adarsh schools are operational in the state. FCS Foundation, a corporate social responsibility arm of FCS Software Solutions Ltd, is running five of these schools at Kaleke (Barnala), Balad Khurd and Gandhuan (Sangrur), and Nawan Gran and Jandiala (SBS Nagar).

“We have not received our dues to the tune of ₹20 crore from the Punjab Education Development Board (PEDB). In fact, we have not received any payment since April 2016. We cannot sustain like this,” said Mrigesh Kumar Shastri, chief executive officer (CEO) of the FCS Foundation. Shastri, however, said he had sent no written communication regarding the dues to the PEDB so far. The capital cost of Adarsh schools, which have around 2,000 students each, was ₹7.50 crore and met on 50:50 basis by the PEDB and respective private partner. The operational cost of ₹1,600 per student per month was to be shared on 70:30 basis, with the PEDB bearing the majority share. “The government at the time of execution of agreement had assured us to provide some back-up plan to cover our 30% of share, such as allowing us to run some vocational courses. Later, nobody paid heed to our concerns,” said Shastri.

DGSE DENIES CHARGE

Punjab director general, school education, Pardeep Sabharwal, who is also the PEDB membersecretary, however, denied the foundation’s claims.

“The small outstanding, if any, will be cleared soon. An amount as high as ₹20 crore is not payable to them,” he told HT.

SAYS GOVT DIDN’T PAY ₹20CR DUES; 10,000 RURAL STUDENTS HIT