BMC-NGO public schools fare better than others

Mumbai: The positives in the Praja Foundation report regarding the ‘state of municipal education’ states that the dropout rate in the newly formed Mumbai Public School (MPS) system is only 2 per cent. The corporation has handed over these schools to private NGOs and though the corporation chooses the school principal, everything else, from teachers to academics, is managed by the NGOs.

The schools under this system started by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in public-private partnership with NGO are English-medium schools that have classes from kindergarten to class 10 unlike the other civic schools that have different sections for KG, class 1 to 8, class 9-10. Though these schools are managed by private organisations, the BMC claims to have ‘control’ over them.

According to the Praja’s annual report, enrolments in MPS have risen by 8 per cent as compared to last year’s that is unlike the enrolments of other civic schools that have seen a downfall. While the 2014-15 enrolment was 27,464, the number for 2016-17 stands at 34,497. Along with this, the drop out too has improved as 2014-15 saw 1,147 drop outs while 2016-17 had only 857. This means the dropouts (2 per cent) in MPS are drastically lower than the overall average dropout of 8 per cent in 2016-17.

However, the BMC’s education committee members feel the corporation don’t need to give away their schools, as they are capable of managing them. Aarti Pugaonkar, member of the education committee says that giving away these schools may lead to commercialisation. “We (BMC) are capable of managing the schools as we have enough infrastructure, manpower and funds. So why do we need to give it away to any private firms? Though the Principal is by us (BMC), eventually he would listen to the school management right?”