BMC initiative under criticism: Tablets elude Class IX students of civic schools

The tablet devices given to students of Class VIII last year were recovered from the children and handed over to the new Class VIII batch. (Express Photo: Dilip Kagda)

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) initiative to provide tablet devices for students has run into further controversy, with the civic body failing to provide the devices to Class IX students of BMC-run schools.
While the BMC’s education department has claimed that the civic body is in the process of procuring new tablets, the opposition in the civic corporation has slammed the administration for the lapse.

In 2015, the Shiv Sena-ruled BMC distributed free tablet PCs to Class VIII students, aiming to reduce weight of students’ school bags and improve quality of education. However, the same batch that was promoted to Class IX has not got the devices this year. The devices given to students of Class VIII last year were recovered from the children and handed over to the new Class VIII batches.

It has been over four months since schools reopened after summer break, but Class IX students have been forced to revert to carrying large school bags and multiple textbooks. According to sources, the BMC has not even started procurement of tablets for 2017-18. With the Class IX syllabus also changed, the new batch cannot use the devices used by the previous class IX students.

The civic education department has announced a tender for procurement of 12,000 tablets for Class IX students.
Shubhada Gudekar, chairman of the education committee of the BMC, claimed that students would be provided the tablets soon. Gudekar said, “The department has already invited tenders three times but due to no response, the procurement of tabs has been delayed. We had yet again this time (fourth time) invited tenders and received response from two bidders. The tablets for class IX students will be procured soon.”

The idea of providing e-books in BMC schools was mooted by Yuva Sena president Aaditya Thackeray. The civic body had also made budgetary provisions for the project. The opposition parties in the civic body alleged that the tablet initiative was introduced only to benefit contractors.

Ravi Raja, leader of the opposition in the BMC, said that instead of procuring 12,000 new tabs, the education department should look at getting a software update in the current tablets, which run a 2014 version of Android.
“The schools are about break for Diwali vacation and the students are yet to get tablet devices. Where is the plan to reduce weight of school bags? The old tablets need to be updated with new syllabus, hence procuring new tablets looks nothing more than a farce to me,” Raja said.

A teacher from a BMC school in Worli said, “Around 25 tablets belonging to our students stopped functioning this year. We sent them for repairs. It has been over eight months and we haven’t got them back.”
An official from the BMC education department said the move to upgrade the old tablets is in progress. “In academic year 2015-16, we procured 22,599 tablets. We are now in the process of procuring 12,000 more tablets,” he said.