Private-aided schools suffer fund shortage
A private-aided school Amarnath high school in Govandi has not received any grants since last ten years.
Mumbai: The quality of education in the private-aided schools in the city is slowly deteriorating due to lack of funding from the state government and
the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). A private-aided school Amarnath high school in Govandi has not received any grants since last ten years.
The school’s primary section, which has around 500 students, is facing financial crunch resulting in lack of good quality teachers and poor facilities for its students.
Technically, the grants given by the government are used to pay the salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff. Another type of grant provided to the school is the non-salary grant which is used to maintain infrastructure and pay electricity bill of the school building. However, the school has not been given either of the grants.
“The fees we get from our students are not enough for us to maintain the school’s infrastructure, extra activities and the salaries of our teachers. We are somehow managing, but the important thing is the students’ education which is now at stake as the teachers’ quality is affected because of less salary,” said Jyoti Patil, the school principal. She has been working in the school for the past 21 years.
Like Ms Patil, 80 per cent of the staff in the school has been working for more than ten years.
“In the year 2007, the BMC gave this school the recognition which means they are supposed to pay grants for the primary section. However, now it’s 2018 and still not a single money has come to us,” said Ms Patil.
An official of the BMC’s education department said, “It is not just this school, but all the private-aided schools are going the same trouble.”
“First of all, we aren’t receiving any money from the state, which we are supposed to forward to the schools through us. If we get the funds, we shall provide the money,” the civic education official explained.
“Not more than '250 is taken from our children as they also belong to financially low-income families but if the state refuses to pay us money, we won’t be left with any option but to accept donations,” said the principal of a Bandra-based school.