Singapore edu foundation to set up 50 schools

Singapore-based Global Indian Foundation (GIF) plans to set up 50 international curriculum schools in India over the next 10 years.

The foundation has also entered into the domain of tribal education by deciding to partner the Social Justice and Empowerment Department of the Gujarat government by establishing a residential school for tribals at Tilakwada in the Narmada district.

In collaboration with GIF, infrastructure expenses will be borne by the state while technical expertise will be provided by GIF. In India, GIF has established international schools at Thiruchirapalli, Gandhidham and Pune.

It is looking at establishing more international schools in the tier-I and tier-II cities by keeping the fee structure at Rs 36,000 per year which is much lower in comparison to the fees charged by most international schools.

Under the government's tribal education plan called 'Eklavya', the state runs 10 schools for students in tribal areas and they are attended by close to 1,300 students. The government has created a corpus of Rs 15,000 crore for promoting tribal education in over 43 taluks in Gujarat.

Subsequently, it has decided to conduct a merit test among tribal students and shift students with potential to those schools that are run in partnership with private institutes and trusts.

The state department has begun its first phase of entering into public-private partnerships by entering into agreements with GIF and the Vadodara-based Navrachna International School. With Navrachna, the government will oversee the management of a tribal school in Panchmahal.

It plans to set up 40 such schools in private partnership in the next five years.

GIF is a non-profit foundation which has established schools in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand and India. It plans to open more schools in Australia and the US.