Fewer BMC std 8 schools even after RTE act

Mumbai: The BMC education department started standard eight classes after the Right to Education (RTE) Act was implemented in the year 2009.

However, even after this, the number of schools in the city that have std eight are few as a majority of them cater to only till class seven.

According to the department, it will take time to establish it in all the BMC schools in the city-which is around 2,500.

“Even before RTE Act came into existence, BMC schools existed. Since then, BMC have been providing free education in our schools for the students of class one to seven. The schools have been established in a manner than only students can be placed. Same is the case with teachers and other staff,” said a senior official of the department.

However, later, in order to curb drop out dates in the BMC schools they initiated class eight too.

“Immediately after class seven, since we did not have class eight, parents were suppose to move the students to other higher secondary school. However, majority of them were either not financially stable or too lazy which resulted in more drop outs,” He said.

“Hence we started class eight for the students but still not many schools have it because of issues like no classrooms and teachers,” he added.

In the year 2015, the department even started Mumbai Public Schools (MPS) for the students. MPS are English medium schools for the students who want to study in such schools. Adding to this, things like tabs, virtual classrooms, e-learning, expertise teachers, competitive examinations, etc are also given to the students.