Page 16 - EW March 2021

Education News

MAHARASHTRA
lower middle-class fami-
BMC’s new CBSE lies, especially those who
have suffered business
schools loss and pay cuts during
the Covid-19 pandemic.
But over the past several
HE BRIHANMUMBAI MUNICIPAL decades, the reputation
Corporation (BMC) of Mum- of BMC schools has be-
Tbai, India’s wealthiest local come so poor that it’s
government with an annual budget likely even low-income
of Rs.39,000 crore, is making final households will prefer to
preparations to inaugurate ten free- pay for quality education
of-charge KG-class XI schools af- than sign up their children
filiated with the Delhi-based Central in free-of-charge BMC
Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) BMC admissions invitation ad schools. Therefore, par-
examination board. ents who can afford to do
Supervised by the Union education besides seven vernacular languages so will prefer to wait and watch before
ministry but certified as autonomous, — Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, enrolling their children in BMC-CBSE
CBSE is the country’s largest pan- Tamil, Telugu and Gujarati. Children schools and even those who sign up,
India school-leaving examinations are supplied with 27 essential educa- will switch to private schools unless
(classes X and XII) board with 21,271 tional items including books, bags, the quality of education is as good as
J
primary-secondaries in India and 200 stationery, uniforms, a mid-day meal is being promised,” says ay an t J ai n ,
overseas affiliated with it. and even electronic tablets (for sec- president, Forum for Fairness in Edu-
The board prescribes several stiff ondary students) free-of-charge. cation.
affiliation norms relating to curricu- However, despite this shower of This scepticism isn’t unfounded.
lum implementation, teacher-pupil freebies, BMC schools have been ex- In 2019, 25 BMC schools were to be
ratios, teacher qualifications, campus periencing a steady exodus of students affiliated with a newly-founded Maha-
infrastructure etc. In addition to all fleeing to Mumbai’s estimated 200 af- rashtra International Education Board
Central government schools (Ken- fordable budget private schools (BPS). (MIEB) launched with great fanfare
driya Vidyalayas, JNVs etc), over Between 2008-18, 229 of BMC’s ver- by the then ruling Bharatiya Janata
16,000 highly reputed private unaided nacular language schools were shut Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena (SS) state gov-
schools including DPS, R.K. Puram, down because of zero student enrol- ernment. Though appreciated by par-
Heritage Xperiential Learning School, ment. Lack of teacher accountability, ticipating schools, no sooner had the
Gurugram and SAI International, poor learning outcomes as well as current tri-party Maharashtra Vikas
Bhubaneswar, routinely top-ranked growing parental aspiration for Eng- Aghadi (MVA) government replaced
in the annual EducationWorld India lish as the medium of instruction, are the earlier BJP-SS regime in Novem-
School Rankings (EWISR), are affili- among the reasons for students even ber 2019, then the MIEB board was
ated with this well-respected exams from bottom-of-pyramid households promptly dissolved.
board. forsaking free-of-charge BMC schools Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)
Operational from the start of aca- to fees-levying private BPS.
demic year 2021-22 (July) when pre- BMC officials entertain high hopes KARNATAKA
schools and primary classes are likely that its new CBSE-affiliated English
to commence, these CBSE schools are medium schools offering excellent in- Empire strikes back
expected to revive and rejuvenate the frastructure, digital and virtual class-
image of the maximum city’s 1,200 rooms, tabs and computer labs, sci- N EARLY YEAR NOTIFICATION TO all
BMC schools which have experienced ence labs, playgrounds and libraries private schools in Karnataka
a 50 percent drop in enrolment since for which the corporation has budget- Ato collect only 70 percent of
2008 because of poor quality educa- ed capital expenditure of Rs.14 crore tuition fees for the current extended
tion and learning outcomes. in its 2020-21 budget, will stem the academic year ending May 31,
Currently, 3.11 lakh children from exodus and prove attractive to lower, provoked an unprecedented protest
low-income households are enrolled middle and working-class parents. shutdown of over 100 private unaid-
in BMC’s 1,200 K-X schools affiliated “It is a welcome initiative to pro- ed schools statewide on February 23.
with the Maharashtra State Board of vide students from low-income fami- On the same day, a protest rally led
Secondary and Higher Secondary Ed- lies K-12 education on a par with by a newly-formed Karnataka Private
ucation. They teach in (semi) English private schools. It might also attract Schools Managements, Teaching

16 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2021