With a view to provide an alternative to the parents of students from economically weaker sections (EWS) diverting to private English medium schools, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will now start 10 more schools with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum. The proposal will be tabled before the civic education committee on Thursday for approval.
The move comes after the civic body received a huge response during the admission of its newly started CBSE school in Jogeshwari -Mumbai Public School. "The idea is to provide an alternative to parents who are willing to shift to private English medium schools. The huge number of applications received for the Mumbai Public school was yet another indication that we need more CBSE schools," Sainath Durge, member of civic education committee, told the Free Press Journal.
BMC’s plan to offer education on a non-state board is aimed at reforming its school system and arresting student attrition.
BMC, currently, runs over 4,000 schools in the city with the state board syllabus. In a radical move, it decided to offer non-state board curricula from the next academic year 2020-2021. The Dadar Woollen Mills school and the Mumbai Public school in Poonam Nagar, Jogeshwari, have been set up to impart the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and CBSE syllabus, respectively. In fact, the Dadar school is the first ICSE municipal school in the country.
Two out of the 40 seats in each class of the Mumbai Public school, Jogeshwari, are reserved. All the remaining seats have been filled by drawing a lottery.
"We are setting up CBSE schools in the newly constructed civic school buildings or those already lying vacant. None of the existing BMC state board schools are being converted to CBSE. We have already shortlisted ten civic school buildings to start the CBSE schools," said Mahesh Palkar, civic education officer.
According to the proposal, 90% admissions will be done by drawing a lottery in the similar way it was done in the previous two -Dadar and Jogeshwari- schools.
"Admissions will be conducted from June 2021 for Junior and Senior Kindergarten and from Class I to Class VI. Total 90 percent admissions will be conducted through the lottery system and will be free of cost. Meanwhile, 5 per cent admission will be as per the recommendation of the Mumbai mayor and remaining 5 per cent admission will be reserved for the children of BMC employees," Palkar added.
The ten civic school buildings where CBSE schools are proposed to be started include:
1. Bhavani Shankar Road Municipal School - Dadar West
2. Kanenagar Municipal School - Antop Hill
3. Pratikshanagar Municipal School- Sion
4. Dindoshi Municipal School - Goregaon East,
5. Janakalyan Municipal School - Malad
6. Tunga Village municipal School - Kurla,
7. Rajawadi Municipal School - Vidyavihar
8. Azizbagh Municipal School - Chembur
9. Hariyali Village Municipal Corporation School - Vikhroli East
10. Mithagar municipal School - Mulund East)
