Not only does Keshubhai appear to have adopted a pragmatic approach towards continuing the "Balguru Yojana" evolved by his bete noire, but he also proposes to make some significant modifications in the scheme to make it more "viable and practical" to resolve the long-pending problem of joblessness facing thousands of primary teachers in the state.

After detailed discussions with the Chief Minister and also with Anandiben Patel, the State Education Department has sent a note to the Finance Department for its approval, as the scheme, when implemented in its new form, would entail an estimated additional burden of Rs 60 crore on the State exchequer. The scheme is expected to implemented from the coming acdemic year.

It would be pertinent to note here that the Minister of State for Education had recently suggested that the "Balguru Yojana " introduced by the previous RJP Government should be scrapped, saying that the scheme was "highly impractical and would encourage corruption among primary teachers if recruited under it".

According to highly-placed sources in the Sachivalaya, the note prepared by the Education Department contains certain vital modifications in the scheme, proposing to raise the ad hoc monthly remuneration from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 for teachers and recruit 20,000 PTC-trained unemployed teachers as against 15,000 the RJP Government had decided to provide employment to.

It has also been suggested in the note that the "Balguru Yojana" be renamed as the "Shikshan Swayamsevak Yojana", and primary teachers to be recruited under the modified scheme will be known as "Shikshan Swayamsevaks" and not as "Balgurus" which the previous Vaghela regime had named.

The sources told The Express Newsline here on Tuesday that the Keshubhai Patel Government had decided to cover at least 5,000 teachers more under the modified scheme, for nearly 4,000 teachers retire every year from primary schools in different parts of the state.

The government also proposes to regularise the services of those primary teachers to be recruited under the scheme in place of the teachers who retire every year. Thus, the services of 20,000 "Shikshan Swayamsevaks" to be recruited under the modified scheme are expected to be regularised in the next five years.

Under the previous "Balguru Yojana", as many as 3,393 teacters had already been recruited in primary schools in different parts of the State. The BJP Government has decided to retain them under its scheme. The expenditure was estimated at Rs 32 crore under the scheme formulated by the Vaghela Governemnt, but the estimates will now increase two-fold in view of the ad hoc monthly remuneration being raised to Rs 2,500 from Rs 2,000 for "Shikshan Swayamsevaks".