Free Covid protection gear for all students

BMC allocates Rs 2,945.78 crore towards education

With a slight increase in the amount compared to last year, a budget estimate of Rs 2,945.78 crore has been allocated for the education sector for the academic year 2021-22, announced the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday. Considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the focus has shifted to digital education, providing free masks and hand sanitisers to all students and extending schools till Class 10. As schools are expected to reopen offline soon, the BMC has allocated a budget provision of Rs 15.90 crore to provide soaps, hand wash or hand sanitisers and face masks for individual students for free. Also, all municipal schools will be provided with infrared thermometers and pulse oximeters

for body temperature checks.

In an attempt to reduce the dropout rate, the BMC has decided to start 24 new secondary schools up to Class 10. Currently, BMC schools cater to pre-primary to Class 8. Ramesh Pawar, deputy municipal commissioner, BMC, said, "Students face inconvenience once they complete their elementary education till Class 8 in municipal schools. Often, students tend to drop out so we aim to extend municipal schools till Class 10."

In addition, 20 playgrounds of

civic schools will be developed with a budget allocation of Rs five lakhs. While 963 upper primary and 224 secondary municipal schools will henceforth be called "Mumbai Public School" (MPS) supplemented by the original school name with a new logo. Under the budget plan, 326 new water purifiers worth Rs 1.31 crore will be bought and installed in civic schools. While Rs 1 crore will be granted to the Mumbai Marathi Granth Sangrahalaya for running 29 libraries, announced the civic body.