40 BMC schools to shut due to fewer students

MUMBAI: Forty schools run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon be shut owing to less number of students. These schools, which are located at various places across the city, have zero students in most of the classes. Out of the 40 schools, 10 to 12 are Marathi medium while others include Urdu and Telugu medium schools. If there are students left in these schools, they will be shifted to an adjoining school. Most of these schools have zero students in class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 or have between four to 10 students in total.

“How can we run a school which has zero students? The most we can do is to combine two-three classes and conduct lectures but then if in total there are 14 to 20 students, it does not make sense to keep three-four teachers,” said a senior official of the BMC education department. In the education committee meeting held on Monday, most of the members disagreed with the decision, as they wanted to do something about the issue instead of shutting the schools.

DN Nagar Marathi School No. 2 at Andheri has zero students in class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 while has 8 students in class 6 and 18 students in class 8. Meanwhile, at Gilbert Hill Municipal Telugu School at Andheri (west) has 18 students in total – out of which 2 students in class 2, six students in class 2, five students in class 3 and 4 and zero students in class 5, 6, 7, 8.

“We don’t want to trouble a single student who is still coming to school. Hence, we will shift the students to adjoining schools along with the teachers,” the official added. According to their plan, this way, the other schools will get more students plus more teachers.