In an attempt to to give a makeover to crumbling municipal schools, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has undertaken repairs of 62 schools and reconstruction of four in the past year.
The schools cater to around 3 lakh students. The BMC-run schools are seeing a steady outflow of students as parents now send their children to private schools with better infrastructure. Many municipal schools are in dilapidated, shabby buildings with little infrastructure to speak of. There have been incidents of slabs collapsing in some of them as well. A December 2017 report by the Praja Foundation said enrolment in BMC schools has dropped by 50% in eight years.
Given this situation, the BMC undertook major repairs of its schools in 2017-18. It has also painted some of these schools in attractive colours. The repair of the 62 municipal schools cost the corporation ₹96 crore.
Among the schools reconstructed include one in Parel Bhoiwada that cost ₹10.55 crore, MHB Gate No. 7 school in Malad (₹26 crore), Gate No. 8 in the same area (₹12 crore) and Shivaji Nagar school in Govandi (₹23 crore).
“We have also incorporated Right To Education norms, such as having separate toilet blocks for boys and girls and for people with disability, one toilet block for every 40 students etc,” said A.L. Jarhad, Additional Municipal Commissioner in charge of education.
Not everyone is convinced that the measures are enough. Civic activist Nikhil Desai said, “Repairs are the bare minimum they should do. But what about quality of education? And the quality of their teachers? What is being done about that?”