MBMC ropes in teachers to identify out-of-school kids

After staring at an alarming rise in the number of dropouts for the past couple of years,

The schools run by the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) have been witnessing an upward trend in enrollments for the upcoming academic session. However, in sharp contrast, some of the schools – especially those imparting education from Classes I to VIII – are seeing extremely low enrolments and the headcount is limited to the range of 10-37 students.

Consequently, the education department is facing an imbalance in the studentteacher ratio. Moreover, the situation has increased the chances of additional teachers being shunted out in accordance with the workforce policy adopted by the government authorities. To counter the situation, the MBMC has roped in civic school teachers to conduct an intensive doorto-door survey to identify outof-school children and bring them into the formal education system.

“Our endeavour is to enroll at least 1,000 more students. To attract more students, we have been striving to turn our educational institutions into smart schools to bring them on par with the private ones,” said deputy civic commissioner Ajit Muthe. At present, there are 36 municipal schools and 154 teachers who impart education in Marathi, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati and semi-English modes to 7,248 students.

From 10,500 students in 2019 to 6,429 students in 2021, the MBMC-run schools had registered a steep downward trend of more than around 35 per cent in the past three years, with a worrisome rise in the number of drop-outs each year. However, this year, enrollments have jumped by 12 per cent in around 28 out of the 36 schools for the upcoming academic session.