E-Paper
Low-cost ‘mini study centres’ for students preparing for competitions in U.P.’s Prayagraj
Officials of Prayagraj Smart City Ltd have proposed allowing the smart classrooms set up by them in 19 schools of the city to be utilised after school hours by these aspirants to prepare for their exams in lieu of a nominal monthly fee of ₹300
Keeping in mind lakhs of youngsters preparing for competitive exams and facing various challenges, officials of Prayagraj Smart City Ltd have decided to lend them a helping hand.
They have proposed allowing the smart classrooms set up by them in different schools of the city to be utilised after school hours by these aspirants to prepare for their exams in lieu of a nominal monthly fee of ₹300. Presently, these aspirants are paying anything between ₹800 and ₹1,500 for such a facility.
The Smart City Mission has converted a total of 295 classrooms in 19 schools here into smart classrooms. These classrooms are equipped with free wi-fi, smart screens and other state-of-the-art facilities. Constant monitoring of these classrooms is done through a common server room and CCTVs.
As per the proposed plan of the smart city authorities, the aspirants will be provided with low-cost ‘study centres’ wherein all the amenities will be provided that they get by paying hefty amount to private players. There are around 200 such privately owned study centres in the city, officials said.
“Prayagraj Smart City will charge a monthly fee of ₹300, of which an amount of ₹100 would be retained by Prayagraj Smart City Ltd for the operation of the scheme while the rest of ₹200 will be given to the school concerned for meeting out the expenditure for providing the facility”, said mission manager (technical), Prayagraj Smart City Ltd, SK Sinha.
He said an app for the slot booking of these study centres would also be developed and provided to the users for which they will be charged. Sinha also claimed that Prayagraj will be the first city in Uttar Pradesh to come up with such a facility.
These ‘smart study centres’ would be provided in two phases. In the first phase, there would be seven schools while in the second phase, 12 more will be added, he shared. In phase one, the proposed project will provide 50 smart classrooms in seven schools and even if just 80% occupancy is calculated, 1200 aspirants would be accommodated in them.
“This will earn an amount of ₹3.60 lakh per month, of which ₹2.40 lakh will be distributed among these seven schools and ₹1.20 lakh will be taken by Prayagraj Smart City Ltd,” said Sinha.
Likewise in the second phase, 245 more such classrooms would be provided to these aspirants and with just 80% occupancy, there still would be 5,880 users. An amount of ₹11.76 lakh per month will be for schools while Prayagraj Smart City Ltd’s share would come to around ₹5.88 lakh.
