Tinkering labs in 25 municipal school, Mumbai civic body panel sanctions proposal

Amidst apprehensions of Opposition party members, the standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) sanctioned a proposal on Wednesday to set up Atal Tinkering Lab in 25 municipal schools across the city

Amidst apprehensions of Opposition party members, the standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) sanctioned a proposal on Wednesday to set up Atal Tinkering Lab in 25 municipal schools across the city. These labs provide students with required material for robotics, electrical and mechanical experiments which are guided by the teachers.

Prakash Javdekar during inauguration of Atal Tinkering Lab in Pune in 2017. (HT File)

The Atal Tinkering Lab initiative is set up by Centre’s NITI Aayog which is said to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.

A proposal to sanction the selected firm for setting up and maintaining the labs was tabled at the committee meeting, on Wednesday. As per the proposal, the BMC will be spending ₹3.48 crore for setting these 25 labs and maintaining them for five years. The proposal does not mention the 25 schools where the lab will be set up.

Earlier, in 2017-18, the BMC had set up its first Tinkering Lab at Colaba Municipal School and later in 2018-19 they set up three more labs at Gundavali MPS School, Pali Chimbai Municipal School and Govandi Station Municipal School on a pilot basis.

Members of the Opposition parties raised objections on the existing tinkering labs which they allege have no such courses for students. Congress corporator Asif Zakaria said, “The Pali Chimbai Municipal School is in my ward and I enquired with the school authorities but there was no such lab there. The administration should give a detailed proposal on this.”

Echoing the same view, Congress corporator Javed Juneja said, “There are no proper details in the proposal. We have never heard of such labs functioning in BMC schools and the administration should clarify this. The civic administration had made tall promises of setting up digital classrooms in BMC schools but nothing has been done yet.”

The proposal was, however, sanctioned by the committee. As per the proposal, it aims to develop creativity, innovation in the mechanical and electrical field, experimentation thoughts and curiosity among students of municipal schools.