Schools await govt nod for admissions

MUMBAI:SCHOOLS that are affiliated under Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) have not started the admission process for the next academic year as the state education department is yet to decide the fate of the newly formed board.

Officials from the state education department said that the new education minister, Varsha Gaikwad, was reviewing the board’s working. “We are waiting for instructions from the new minister before communicating anything to the schools,” said the official.

A total of 81 schools. which are part of the board, are yet to begin admissions for 2020-21.“We took affiliation to the board as it promised to bring in new teaching methods. While most parents gave us good feedback there is a lot of uncertainty about the board’s future. We have thus asked parents who wish to admit their children next year to wait,” said a representative of a MIEB school in the city.

The board, which was an ambitious project of former state education minister Vinod Tawde is now being reviewed by the new government after receiving several complaints about lack of transparency in the functioning of the board.

After the change in government, the contracts of several officials on the board were not renewed, which is now becoming a cause for concern for the schools. “An official asked us to cooperate even after the change in government. This is a matter of concern as there seemed to be uncertainty about the board’s functioning,” added a principal.

In 2018, the government started the project on a pilot basis in 13 schools across the state. Last year, it accepted applications from 455 schools from the state to become part of the first 100 to be selected for the board.

Of these, five schools were from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).