35 Vernacular BMC Schools To Restart In English With Private Funds

Roping in philanthropists and corporate funding, the BMC plans to provide English medium education to students of 35 vernacular schools that were recently shut down due to poor attendance.

Promising “superior education” at these schools, the BMC plans to induct professional management groups to run the institutes and convince parents to send back their children. If the plan works out, these 35 schools could start in the coming academic year. Civic schools usually get stunts from economically weak dents from economically weak sections. The BMC has hundreds of schools across the city, catering to about 3.39 lakh students; many of these are semi-English medium. The civic authority spends Rs 110 crore every year to provide educational material and midday meals. “But parents don’t want to send their kids to vernacular schools, leading to declining attendance and closure of such schools,” said Samajwadi Party’s Rais Shaikh.

He said there is a mechanism within the system to provide English-medium education, but the BMC has not been advertising this fact. “Moreover, it would be illegal to let private parties take over primary educational management of BMC schools. The local community could be roped in to convince poor families to send back their children to the civic school,” he said.

A couple of industrialists have already shown interest in improving the quality of education in BMC schools through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) fund. Private companies have to, as part of their CSR, spend a certain percentage of their profits for social causes.

The BMC will soon invite expression of interest from philanthropist-business houses associated with educational institution for Full School Management with Private Partner Teachers scheme. As per this scheme, interested parties will be allowed to appoint their teachers and associate staff and pay their salaries besides managing the schools.

“We will soon open our 35 closed schools with the help of philanthropists associated with educational institution to manage them. They will be allowed to manage, provide teaching learning material and methodologies and we will have our principals to monitor activities,” said additional municipal commissioner IA Kundan.

The civic authority will also put it in the agreement that that partners should not charge students any fee and not use the school premises for any non-schooling activity.

(Times of India)

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