Falling enrolment forced 142 municipal schools to shut down in 5 years: Praja report

Report found a total of 426 municipal schools in Mumbai were running with one to 100 students while 53 schools had only one to 20 students

In the last five years, 142 schools under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have closed, revealed report titled “State of Municipal Education in Mumbai” released on Wednesday by city-based non-governmental organisation, Praja Foundation.

Praja members present the report during a press conference on Wednesday. (HT Photo)

The report found a total of 426 municipal schools in Mumbai were running with one to 100 students while 53 schools had only one to 20 students, and were therefore on the verge of being merged with other schools. Student numbers at English-medium schools that are run jointly by the municipal corporation and private agencies increased between 15-18% while English-medium schools that are not under any NGO saw a 17% increase in the last three years. “This trend shows that with the right intervention and use of existing resources, other schools under the corporation can also do better,” said Nitai Mehta, founder and trustee, Praja Foundation.

Ghanshyam Sonar, convenor of Saman Shikshan Mulbhut Adhikar Samiti, said that the decision to shut schools down shows the civic body’s lack of interest in running them. “Shutting a school because there are few students is basically a tactic to divert students to private schools. In many parts of the city, students have to go to private schools because there isn’t a BMC school around,” Sonar said.

Officials from BMC’s education department refused to comment on the survey findings.

As per the Praja Foundation’s report, enrolments at civic schools continued to dip. From 62,692 new students in 2016-17, enrolments came down to 56,969 in 2017-18. The greatest fall in numbers was recorded in Hindi-medium schools, followed by Urdu- and Marathi-medium schools respectively. In the last five years, enrolments to Class 1 have seen a 24% dip and 87.8% of the students who had enrolled in Class 1 in 2013-14 reported that they had continued their education till Class 5 in 2017-18.

The results of a household survey that was commissioned to Hansa Research conducted in May-June 2018 revealed that 94% respondents wanted to switch their children to private schools due to reasons like better health facilities, first aid, stationery and clean toilets.

For the first time, a sample study was conducted of 24 school development plans only to find there was no action plan in place for schools’ infrastructural, financial and other requirements. The report also revealed that 161 councillors have not asked a single question on education between April 2017 and March 2018.