Future of civic schools is bleak

schools are located in large buildings, many of which are now being renovated. BMC is also experimenting with modern teaching tools; in 2011, ‘digital classrooms’ were set up in nearly 500 schools. In 2015, BMC bought 22,800 tablets preloaded with the curriculum for students in Classes 8, 9 and 10.

Despite the infusion of funds and ideas, parents do not trust municipal schools to equip their children with academic tools. Many even prefer illegal private institutions to municipal schools. Earlier this year, BMC declared 211 privately-run schools, with around 12,000 students, illegal as they do not meet infrastructure norms and lack adequate teaching staff.

BMC is toying with more ideas to stop the decline in number of enrolments at its schools, which includes plans to start its first CBSE and ICSE affiliated schools. The municipal corporation is renovating its schools, besides connecting classrooms to the digital world. All these efforts have, however, failed to increase enrolments.

So what can be done to save these schools? The remedy, according to groups like Praja Foundation, is to monitor and improve educational outcome. This means improving the quality of education. BMC has mechanisms to do this. It has constituted school management committees (SMCS), consisting members from the teacher and parent community, along with experts and councillors, to oversee the functioning of the schools. The committees have to meet regularly to discuss and solve challenges faced by the schools, but BMC councillors seem to be apathetic about the decline. The Praja Foundation report says three out of four councillors did not attend a single meeting in 2018-19.

Another solution is to take help from not-for-profit education groups to run the schools. An earlier report from Praja Foundation revealed the schools which are running with the help of private groups do better with lower dropout rates and inculcate better learning skills among students. This has been, however, a sensitive topic with a section of BMC councillors who feel that allowing private groups into schools could jeopardise the municipal corporation’s property rights.