Mumbai: The BMC has taken punitive action against 179 teachers of which 87 were fined or their increment was halted and other actions such as issuing memos against 92 teachers from 2018 to 2022 for poor show by the students, revealed an RTI reply. The performance of civic school primary teachers was evaluated on the basis of student results from 2017.
NGO Praja Foundation’s annual report on the state of municipal education released recently mentioned the RTI reply. As per the report, 204 teachers/heads of schools were awarded certificates for the good performance of their students. The civic education department's circular of October 2017 stated that teachers of the primary section (Class I-VIII) have to ensure that students meet 25 parameters, including attendance and skills in math and languages. They were to be rewarded and given preference in the Mayor’s award or fined between Rs 100-2,000 on the basis of a class success rate.
Most primary students from schools in F/North (Wadala, Sion), P/North (Malad) and M/E (Govandi) wards scored an average of 78% in language skills and 81% were able to solve mathematical problems in 5th standard. While in 8th standard, 81% of students on average were proficient in language skills and 84 % in solving maths in 2021-2022.
BMC education officer Rajesh Kankal said, "The teachers are evaluated based on student performance and accordingly they are awarded, fined, memos issued or increment halted. The minimum action is to give them a written warning or in an extreme case, the increment is halted permanently. However, the action depends on the nature of their ignorance in work."
As per the report, a 10-year trend shows that student enrollments in BMC schools have seen a continuous drop from the academic year 2012-13 to 2019-20. However, it has increased by 6% from 2018-19 to 2021-22. In the year 2012-13, there were 4,34,523 students which decreased to 3,00,746 in 2018-19. Thereafter, it again gained pace and went to 3,18,002 in 2021-22.
