Civic schools short-staffed, students suffer

The municipal corporation started hiring teachers on contract for its 85 municipal schools but poor pay have forced many to quit

CBD BELAPUR: Despite constructing state- of- art school buildings in the city under the school vision, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has paid l ittle attention to improve the quality of education in the civic schools.

No step has been taken by the civic body to recruit adequate teachers in the schools, which has affected the students.

T he f unctioning of t he NMMC’s education committee, too, leaves a lot to be desired. The committee seems to be least bothered about increasing the number of teachers in civic schools.

Schools run by zilla parishads were taken over by the NMMC since its inception. The number of students in the civic schools has also gone up over the years. Old school buildings have fallen short of accommodating the burgeoning students.

Hence, the civic body has undertaken construction of multi-storey buildings under the school vision. At present 25,000 students study in 68 primary and 17 secondary civic schools. There is a shortage of teachers in the primary, secondary and English medium schools. To overcome this, NMMC has recruited teachers on contract basis, but due to poor payment, several contract teachers have quit.

Class 8, which has been included in the primary section, is also facing shortage of B.Ed teachers, thereby affecting the quality of education imparted to students. The post of the education officer is lying vacant in the absence of a qualified officer. This has affected the functioning of the education department.

A deputy municipal commissioner has been given the responsibility of the education department. Those who become chairperson of the education committee have been frequent- ly removed from the post. The chairperson has hardly any independence to improve the education department.

The civic body, which has undertaken redevelopment of old schools, has paid little attention to maintain the existing ones. An NMMC official said, “The NMMC’s record of civic schools is excellent. It would not have been possible if we did not provide quality education.”

“We have sent proposals to the government for recruitment of teachers. We try to get teachers on contract basis,” he said.

Former corporator Namdeo Bhagat said, “The civic body is flush with funds, yet the civic schools continue to suffer from several problems.”