Several members of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s education committee on Friday severely criticised the education budget for 2018-19.
The corporators raised several red flags such as the high dropout rate and low enrolment rate in civic schools, and lack of accountability in the education system. Members were miffed about the budget speech’s failure to mention the enrolment and dropout rates. They also demanded that a third party conduct school audits instead of a self-review by the BMC.
The members, who are a mix of elected and nominated representatives, questioned the poor Class X results and dismal performance of BMC students in scholarship exams. However, none of them complained about the quality of civic school teachers.
Shiv Sena’s Sheetal Mhatre set the tone for the meeting, as she termed the BMC’s digital classrooms a farce as schools lacked internet connectivity owing to the non-payment of bills.
She also said that the much-hyped tablets for students scheme was rendered useless as the new Class IX curriculum had yet not been uploaded on the devices. Ms. Mhatre complained that BMC’s education schemes were easy to conceptualise but difficult to execute.
Schemes under a cloud
Shiv Sena’s Samruddhi Kate said, “We have received reports of students pulling out memory cards and batteries from the tablets. We want information on how many are still working.”
Nationalist Congress Party’s Saeeda Khan questioned the quality of the 27 items, including books, uniforms, shoes and stationery, which were distributed to students at the beginning of the academic year. She said the uniforms were too small for secondary school students and there were no shoes bigger than size 6. “Class IX students have not received textbooks owing to a change in the syllabus,” she said.
Ms. Khan said that administrative delays had prevented the BEST bus service from ferrying students in her ward. She also asked whether the decision to open English-medium schools to ostensibly increase enrolment rates was taken on a whim or after critically assessing the problem.
Unspent funds
The corporators also criticised the disappearance of some Budgetary allocations. They said that though money for sports uniforms was sanctioned last year, it was not provided. The allocation has been made again. Former mayor Snehal Ambekar said corporators worked hard to secure funds but the BMC only managed to spend half of these allocated funds.
