Observing sharp decline in the number of children enrolling with the schools run and managed by Bokaro Steel Plant (BSl), management has formally merged its 12 schools with other schools.
BSl had established a large-scale infrastructure consisting of 42 schools in order to meet the educational need. Forty of them were functioning till the last week, BSl officials said. Two schools in Sector-3 (Kalyan Vidyalaya) and Sector-9 (Balika Vidyalaya) were dedicated specifically to the education of children from the lower socio-economic strata, offering the students free tuition, reading material, uniforms and mid-day meal.
This set-up was supplemented by private schools that grew over the decades in the township. The BSl-run schools endeavored to provide quality education at nominal cost, with the fees in CBSE-affiliated schools only marginally higher than those for JAC-affiliated schools, said the official.
With time, as the manpower of Bokaro Steel Plant came down, a decline was observed in the number of children enrolling with BSl schools, together with a steady increase in the proportion of non-BSl wards. Gradually over the years, the capacity utilisation of the schools reduced, coming in some cases as low as 10 percent, he said.
“This necessitated a re-look into the possibility of consolidating the schools through mergers. Such a move would also allow for better utilization of the faculty pool, which remained unevenly distributed and underutilised,” added the official.
In this backdrop, BSl has formally merged 12 schools with others. Earlier, 2 schools that were run in other school buildings were merged with the respective locations. This effectively consolidates the number of running schools to 26, including the Kalyan and Balika vidyalayas and the two model schools in Sector-2 and Sector-11 respectively.
Of these, 19 schools are affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and 7 with the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC). The students have been offered the option of joining a different school in case they have difficulties or reservations about going to the merged entity. Even after this merger, the schools have some slack capacity, and will be able to cater to more students in need of affordable and quality education.
The teaching faculty of the merged schools has been allocated to the remaining schools, thus optimising the staff of all the schools. Similarly, the coming together of students from different schools will provide them a unique opportunity to share the good experiences of their respective institutions and cultivate a sense of belonging to a larger and better institution.
The furniture and infrastructure of the merged schools are also being utilised suitably. With lesser number of schools, the resources for maintenance and upkeep of school buildings would also be better utilised. Meanwhile, a number of ideas are being considered for gainful utilisation of the school buildings rendered redundant, excluding three school buildings that had become too distressed over the years and were under consideration for being declared unsafe for use.
The students affected by these mergers, their parents and the staff of the schools and the entire Education Department of BSl have shown have shown commendable support and initiative towards this unique move, and are set to reap its multi-pronged benefits, said the official.
In its golden jubilee year, Bokaro Steel Plant is undertaking all-round initiatives to improve the various aspects of the management of the plant. The merger of the schools is a strong indicator that the improvement plans are not limited to the plant proper, but touch all aspects of the quality of life of the citizens of Bokaro Steel City.