BMC students to study in transit camps while schools are repaired

Students of all Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools where repair work is being carried out, will be shifted to transit camps henceforth. Over 63 repair works of school buildings will be completed in this academic year and these temporary transit camps will be constructed outside schools to avoid losing students who do not return after shifting to new schools.

This move has come to control the dropout rate of students. Currently, whenever there is a repair or construction work of a particular school the students are shifted to a new school to avoid missing out of classes. But students would often become a part of that school and would not return to their original school as per the civic education department.

Now, students will be shifted for a temporary period in transit camps constructed in the school vicinity or campus. This camp will help students to continue with their classes in the school premises itself. A senior official from education department said, “If students were shifted t o new schools they would never return to original schools. Parents would get used to the new school would find it frustrating to shift their children every now and then. We do not want to lose students due to this shifting.”

These transit camps will be temporary shelters or a community hall turned into a classroom. Sudha Mishra, a parent said, “These transit camps will not help students because if they are in the vicinity of the school then there will be a lot of disturbance and noise due to the repair work. Students will not be able to focus due to this continuous disturbance.”

Repair and reconstruction work of 65 schools in the Mumbai region has been completed last year as per the School Infrastructure Cell (SIC) of the BMC. While, repair works of around 90 schools is pending. In addition, development of seven playgrounds will be undertaken. SIC aims to complete all reconstruction by March 2018.