Mumbai : Following the alleged nonchalant attitude of the BMC’s education department, scores of children studying in civic-run schools are deprived of the various scholarships programmes run by the state government.
There are around 82,000 students studying in BMC schools that either belong to minority communities or are from OBC/ST/SC/NT categories. These students are allegedly deprived of the about 10-12 scholarships schemes that they are entitled to.
Shivnath Darade, a BJP corporator and the member of BMC’s Education Committee brought this issue to light. She asserted that lack of interest, awareness and dearth of digital knowledge amongst BMC officials are the prime reasons why the benefits of such schemes do not reach to students.
“All application forms have been made available online, but schools either do not have computers that are in a working condition or the required internet connection. Teachers have to visit the ward office to collect or submit forms, even though it can be made accessible by the click of a mouse,” he asserted.
Darade also alleged that circulars regarding scholarships do not reach the schools. “When the BMC can spend several crore on distributing tablets to school children, it should also provide basic amenities to schools. We are still functioning in a primitive way,” he said.
He added that lack of manpower too is a reason as one can’t expect teachers to sit in a cyber cafes after work and fill up forms..
However, Shambhavi Jogi, education officer of the BMC said, “The scholarships provide monetary benefits to students to attract them to schools. The BMC is already spending over Rs 22,000 per student every year. Each scholarship is not over Rs 500 or Rs 600 rupees, where as the students are getting everything they require though the 27 items we distribute to them.”
Jogi said that none of the forms are available online and teachers have to travel to Pune to the social welfare department to collect and submit the forms.
Eeshanpriya MS
