Vijayawada: Around 13 leading international schools from across the globe have expressed keen interest in setting up their campuses in the new capital city Amaravati. This interest was expressed by the promoters of international schools from Singapore and Dubai at the round-table on international schools that was hosted by the CRDA here on Tuesday.
Principal secretary Ajay Jain, along with additional commissioner Ram Manohar, chaired the meeting with the promoters and representatives of the leading schools.
Laying out the context, Mr Ajay Jain had proposed to the schools the options available in Amaravati. Around two international schools and five private schools would be required in Amaravati by the year 2019.
It was proposed that for international schools, for a non-residential campus, three to five acres would be allotted, and for a residential campus, around seven to eight acres would be allotted.
Mr Jain proposed that the process being considered for the allotment is a Quality-Cost-Based-Process (QCBS), where an initial qualification will be conducted of the applicants, and then a cost based short listing would be conducted for the qualified participants.
DPS International, which cou-nts alumni like Raghuram Rajan, mentioned that while they preferred outright sale of land, they would be fine with the proposed leased model. Global Indian Interna-tional School (GIIS), Singapore, mentioned that a cost-based process might not produce the best quality in schools.
Ryan International representative invited the government to visit their campuses to get a feel of the quality of infrastructure provided. Ryan proposed a ballooning model for lease payments instead of an upfront payment. Podar International was keen in picking a land parcel in a residential area.
Indus International proposed to formalise the Right to Education (RTE) requirements as a part of the city education/school policy. Pathways, one of the top three international schools from NCR, discussed about choosing land for setting up their campus.
Mr Prabhat Jain, from Pathways, and GEMS from Dubai, which has presence in 17 countries, spoke about the different models they use for schools. Chirec Internati-onal, Jubilee Hills Public School, Amity Internati-onal, HLC International and Candor International also participated in the discussions.
