After staring at an alarming rise in the number of drop-outs for the past couple of years, most of the schools run by the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) are witnessing an upward trend in enrollments in the upcoming academic session this year.
However, in sharp contrast, some schools- especially imparting education from Class I to Class VIII are grappling with extremely low enrolments and the headcount is limited to the range of 10 to 37 students.
Consequently, the education department is facing an imbalance in the student-teacher 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 door-to-door survey to identify out-of-school children and bring them into the formal education system.
“Our endeavour is to enrol 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 chief-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% in the past three years coupled with a worrisome rise in the number of drop-outs, every year.
However, this year, a 12 per cent jump has been witnessed in around 28 out of the 36 schools towards enrollments for the upcoming academic session.
