Jaipur: Shekhawati region, which is known for its entrepreneurs and martyrs, has added another feather to its cap by having the best school education in the country.
The Union ministry of education’s Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) declared on Monday adjudged Sikar as the top destination for school education in the country as it met all criteria for quality education and world-class facilities. Jhunjhunu is next in the ranking followed by Jaipur.
Sikar scored 488 to emerge on the top while the second and third slots were sealed by Jhunjhunu and Jaipur by scoring 486 and 482, respectively, out of a total of 12 parameters. The ranking is a sub-result of two years of observation 2018-19 and 2019-20. A total of 733 districts/big towns were included in the survey across states and Union territories.
Commenting on the survey report, Puneet Sharma, an expert on education trends in the state, said the city had produced numerous business leaders leading around the globe. “These business houses have had a strong tradition of opening educational institutes back in their native cities. It is the reason that both Sikar and Jhunjhunu have one of the biggest institutions in the country in terms of land, sporting facilities, buildings etc,” said Sharma.
Explaining the role of the business houses, he said most of these schools don’t care for profit or even it reaches break even. “They are highly funded by their respective corporate houses which enables them to have world-class infrastructure under the free structure of any decent schools,” said Sharma.
Elated over the top ranking, Rita Sharma, principal of Bharti Public School in Sikar said, “It is not known to many that residential schools in Sikar have students from almost 10-15 states. From states like Maharashtra to West Bengal and from Himachal Pradesh to Odisha. The reason is most of the schools pay their teachers and staff the best pay scales in the country along with facilities like free stay, food and paid vacations pulls the employees even bigger cities like Delhi, Bangalore or Mumbai.”
In Jhunjhunu, a residential school on the national highway run by a leading business house, has a helipad and a polo ground with expensive horses giving admission to children of their group of companies on priority.
“Every year, the parent corporate house invests crores of rupees to make the school advance in terms of everything. Here the breakfast, lunch and dinner menu can give a run for money to any good hotel. Some sports have coaches from foreign countries and international academic tie-ups with noted institutions is a phenomenon exclusive to some schools,” said a senior teacher associated with the school.
Another trend which is fast picking up in these two districts is crowd funding by locals to enhance and upgrade the local school.
Both the districts have the highest density of schools with electricity, drinking water, owned buildings, and functional toilets. In most cases, it has become possible due to the crowd funding by donors which are popularly known as Bhamashahs.
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