MUMBAI: The strength of students in Mumbai’s municipal schools continues to decline. According to recently-released statistics by the civic body, which is till September, 2015, the numbers have fallen by 14,981 as compared to last year. While the strength in all seven regional language schools run by the BMC has come down, the sharpest fall is with the Marathi schools. Over 17 Marathi schools were closed in 2015-16, as the number of students reduced by 3,532. Interestingly, the number of English medium schools run by the civic body has gone up from 52 in 2014-15 to 55 in 2015-16.
“Most of the Marathi population has moved out of town to distant suburbs like Kalyan, Dombivli or Badlapur, and hence the fall in numbers,” said G. R. Kulkarni, deputy education officer of the civic education department.
Farida Lambay, founder trustee of Pratham, an NGO that works in the field of education, said parents prefer to put their children in English-medium schools. “The fall in numbers in civic schools is a cause of concern.”
The drop in numbers is despite the BMC providing 27 items — from school bags to uniforms, shoes, books — at the beginning of academic year. The civic body is planning to offer tablets, and using very small aperture technology (VSAT) in classrooms. About 480 virtual classrooms are equipped with VSAT. “We will have to restore faith of parents back in civic schools. This will happen when our students do well in inter-school, national or international forums,” said education officer Mahesh Palkar.
The civic body’s experiment to start semi-English medium schools, where subjects like science, maths and social studies are taught in English, is a success. The student strength in these schools rose by over 4,000 within a year 2015-16.
Ramesh Joshi, general secretary of Mahapalika Shikshak Sabha, a body of civic teachers, said the policy of enriching English at the cost of State exchequer is not right. “The State should insist on teaching in mother tongue as a child is most comfortable in learning in it. The State is not serious about carrying out its task of providing basic education. This can be seen in its moves like renting out municipal school premises to private entities and giving aid to private schools, instead of civic schools.”
