Mumbai civic schools’ report card: 91 shut in 3 years; more on way

In 2018, Parel’s Nare Park Municipal School was at the verge of shutting down with only nine students enrolled in the school. As the new academic year began in June

In 2018, Parel’s Nare Park Municipal School was at the verge of shutting down with only nine students enrolled in the school. As the new academic year began in June 2019, there were only six students left in the school as the rest had passed their Class 10 boards in the previous year. After seeing the poor turnout, parents of remaining students also pulled out their children, thus leaving the school empty.

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Nare Park Municipal School is one of the many civic schools that are struggling for survival despite the civic body’s many initiatives over the years to increase enrolment. Between 2015 and 2018, 91 schools under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had closed down owing to poor or no enrolments, revealed a report released by NGO Praja Foundation in January 2019. Of the 1,192 schools that are currently operational, 53 are on the verge of shutting down with only one to 20 students enrolled them.

“Since the past few years, our teachers have been trying to convince locals to send their children to the school. But we failed to get admissions,” says Amardeep Gajbhiye, the only teacher at Nare Park Municipal School who is also the acting principal.

On September 13, BMC’s education committee had proposed to get ICSE and CBSE affiliation for two of its schools, on a pilot basis, to bring them at par with schools run by central boards and boost enrolments.

In 2011, the civic body set up digital classrooms in 480 schools. Ever since, ₹2-3 crore is allocated every year for the digitisation process. In 2015, the BMC spent ₹15.5 crore in procuring 22,800 tablets preloaded with course material for students between Classes 8 and 10.

All these efforts have, however, failed to increase enrolments.

Between 2008 and 2019, Class 1 enrolments in BMC schools have seen a nearly 50% dip, with enrolments going down to 32,218 in 2016-17 from 63,392 in 2008-09.

Milind Mhaske, director of Praja Foundation, said that the lack of quality education is the most important reason that keeps away students from civic schools.

“Through the surveys that we conducted, we realised that what is required to improve is something as basic as students’ learning outcomes. There is a serious leadership crisis at all levels — the principal is not empowered to take decisions independently that do not allow them to bring any change. Secondly, there is no monitoring of the teaching-learning process at any level,” he said.

Principals said that while a lot of resources are spent on new initiatives, there is hardly a follow up on its progress. For instance, the ambitious tab programme started in 2015 fizzled out within two years of its launch as most schools complained of poor maintenance of the tablets. “This year, the civic body told us to add the new syllabus on these tabs on our own. We are not even taught how to do that,” said the principal of a school in Chembur.

Many teachers also complained about having to spend most of their time in administrative work, leaving very little time to teach. Of the 250 schools that have the provision for appointing a principal, only 13 have permanent appointments. In the rest, the senior-most teachers double up as acting principals.

Govind Dhavale, secretary, Mahapalika Madhyamik Shikshak Shikshaketar Karmachari Sanghatna, said, “Many English medium schools under the BMC have teachers who have not studied in the medium themselves. Even parents who are illiterate expect their children to speak in English if they send them to a school of that medium. If that does not happen, they are compelled to enrol their children in budget private schools.”

Sainath Durge, member of BMC’s education committee, said that the most important hurdle in improving enrolments is the perception of parents. “There is a certain taboo around municipal schools which keeps parents away from them. To get rid of it, new interventions are essential. The civic body is also working on renaming all its schools as Mumbai Public Schools [MPS] to get rid of the municipal tag,” added Durge. Currently, only the English medium schools under BMC are called MPS.

Schools that have less than 10 students have to apply for a merger with a nearby civic school. “While we make all the attempts to ensure that the enrolment goes up by roping in corporators, activists and local communities, sometimes it just does not work,” said Prakash Charate, BMC’s deputy education officer.