'Balwadis' to get a facelift

Vadodara: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) primary education committee will give a facelift to its preschools and provide an ambience as well as facilities like private preschools there.
Work on five 'balwadis' or preschools will begin soon as a pilot project.
The VMC presently operates 65 pre-schools within the premises of its primary schools at various locations in the city.
These preschools are funded by the civic body as the state or central government does not provide any aid for these.
"We had made provisions for sprucing up these preschools in our budget. The tenders for the work on five preschools have already been received and they will be opened shortly to give work orders," said committee chairman Keyur Rokadiya.
Rokadiya said that the ambience of the pre-schools will be made much like that of private ones by having colourful interiors that include cartoons. "We will also be providing tools and other material like the private schools," he said.
The first pre-school that the civic body will be sprucing up is the one at Atladara. "There is an old room that that is not being used. We will be renovating it and bringing the pre-school out of the existing school building," Rokadiya said. Once the work order is given, this preschool would be ready in about a month's time.
In all, the VMC operates 65 preschools in the city attended by 4,160 children. Rokadiya said that every year five of these could be taken up to ensure that all the preschools are of good quality.
He added that the expenses involved were also not very high as only around Rs 12 lakh will be spent on the first five pre-schools. The primary school committee is also looking to have a standardized colour scheme for all its schools in the city.