The Jharkhand government has taken a big leap in improving the quality of state-owned schools by announcing that it would start 80 model schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) from April, with infrastructure on a par with elite schools.

“We are lagging behind in education and our government has taken it as a challenge to improve the standard of education. The concept of model schools in each panchayat of the state with the best infrastructure is a step in this direction. Eighty model schools in all 24 districts are planned in the first phase.

“The schools will be monitored at the highest level and I will conduct surprise inspections. Big entities like Azim Premji Foundation are also willing to train our teachers and students,” said chief minister Hemant Soren at a daylong conclave of the school management committee of model schools in Ranchi on Monday.

According to the project director of Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC), Kiran Pasi, the 80 model schools will start functioning from next month.

“However, the 325 model schools located in each block of the state will start functioning from the next academic session (2024). Work on improving infrastructure is underway on a war footing at these schools. Thereafter, over 4,000 model schools in each of the panchayats of the state will also be constructed. All these model schools will have teachers trained by experts from IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Ranchi.

Hemant Soren receives a felicitation from secretary school education and literacy K Ravikumar during the meeting in Ranchi on Monday. Manob Chowdhury

“The Azim Premji Foundation will train the teachers and the school managing committee for quality education,” Pasi said.

The 80 selected schools in the first phase are 24 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, 24 state-run girls’ schools, one middle school in Pakur, 24 district (zilla) schools and seven model schools. All of them will follow the CBSE English medium syllabus.

“Till the end of the previous academic year, these 80 schools followed the curriculum and structure of the Jharkhand Council of Education Research and Training (JCERT). However, these schools will follow the CBSE English syllabus now,” Pasi added.

“Our children are not behind in any field. The problem was that the implementation of schemes was not done in right earnest at the school level. It is necessary that we connect them with resources. Our government is determined to provide the best of education for free to the poor and enable them to shine in the academic field as they have been doing in sports,” Hemant said.

Hemant also asked the school management committee members to ensure that students enrolled and attended schools regularly.

The chief minister also announced competitions among model schools wherein winning students and staff would be taken on tours to other progressive states of the country so that they could learn from the best practices adopted there.

The model schools have modern libraries, science and language labs, smart classes, ICT labs, and vocational studies along with sports infrastructure.