Mumbai: The number of student enrolments in Mumbai’s civic schools has fallen by 24 per cent – from 4,04,251 in 2013-14 to 3,11,663 in 2017-18, according to a Praja Foundation report, titled, ‘State of Municipal Education in Mumbai’. At this rate, municipal schools will have no students left by 2027-28, said the report, released on Wednesday.
The report has blamed the absence of municipal councillors at school management meetings as one of the major reasons for the bad state of these schools. Municipal councillors failed to attend even one meeting at more than 85 and 83 per cent of schools in 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively, as per the report .
Shiv Sena corporator Mangesh Satamkar, who is the chairman of the education committee in the BMC, said, “Councillors are not invited to most of the meetings, so how can we go uninvited?” Further, Satamkar pointed out, there has been a rise in admissions to English medium municipal schools, even as students are dropping out of Marathi medium schools.
The report states that 229 schools have already closed in the last 10 years for want of enrolment or due to student transfers, of which more than 48 per cent were Marathi medium schools and 39.7 per cent others. According to Milind Mhaske, director of Praja Foundation, “This is despite the 36 per cent rise in the education budget of the municipal corporation, from Rs 1,540 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 2,094 crore in 2017-18.”
Blaming the corporation and the education department, Nitin Mehta, founder and trustee of the Praja Foundation said, “The weakest and marginalised sections of the society are bearing the brunt of an unaccountable and inefficient education department (of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation).” The BMC on Monday had passed a proposal to give priority to students studying in the municipal schools when it comes to civic jobs. “On implementation, this will address the issue of falling admissions,” claimed Satamkar.