The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB)–the state’s affiliating body for schools–have received nearly 350 applications for the current academic session 2022-23, shows data accessed by The Indian Express. The number of applications from trusts and organisations for opening new Class 10 and 12 private schools was the lowest in 2021-22 at only 290 or less than half compared to 600 applications received during 2020-21.

There is a “preference for government schools over private ones” after the pandemic as families are still not able to recover from the financial burdens, cite both private schools and the approving authorities. “The new schools applications are few in the past two years as the condition of parents affected due to Covid-19 pandemic is still not stable. Hence, they prefer government schools over private ones–a trend more evident in the urban areas,” said Gujarat Self-Financed School Management Federation President Bharat Gajipara.

There is also “no scope for non-sustainable smaller private schools” with the added trouble from the revised rules from 2019 for new schools.

Echoing similar views, GSHSEB Chairman A J Shah said, “Children are now going to government and grant-in-aid schools than private ones that can be attributed to the decline in numbers.” It is now the survival of the fittest following the revised rules for new private school applications in 2019, Shah added.

Of the 350 new school applications, including 140 for secondary and 210 for higher secondary, received this year, nearly 37 per cent have recently received provisional approval from GSHSEB and started their functioning too. Though normally it takes around one-and-a-half years for a regular approval to be issued by the board from the time of application, provisional approval or affiliation is issued to the school to start operations valid for a year.

In September 2019, the education department revised rules pertaining to playgrounds for setting up a new school after a sharp decline in the number of new schools approved in 2019-20. The minimum playground size condition was changed from 1,200 square metres to 800 square metres in the urban areas, while in the rural areas, it was reduced from 2000 square metres to 1500 square metres.

According to the earlier 2018 notification and revised later in 2019, applicants were required to have their own space for playground within the same campus that was relaxed to allow a rented space adjoining the school with a condition of a registered rent agreement for 15 years.

Gajipara, who heads the federation of 9,000 private schools across Gujarat, said the new rules have impacted prospective new school applicants. “Though these have not affected the bigger and reputed schools set up in the good areas which in any case are less in numbers, the smaller ones in the middle and low economic strata areas that were largely opening till the pandemic has now stopped.”

Other conditions include no pending court case of the land, the requirement for non-agricultural land along with the condition of management, trust or an organisation willing to open a school in the rural areas with a minimum of Rs 2 lakh bank balance and Rs 3 lakh in urban areas.

The long list of conditions also includes the school building should not be in a shopping centre or adjoining a shopping centre in any manner and CCTV cameras to be mandatory in the school.

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Further, to check malpractices in the application and approval process, the board has completely removed any physical file work for this process right from the application to approval. Following the scrutiny of applications by GSHSEB’s executive committee, only once the provisional approval is given, the file is sent to the concerned district education officer for physical verification of the applicant and the application.

As per GSHSEB rules, provisional affiliation is granted once the documents are submitted online.