Praja Foundation

BMC spends over Rs 50,000 per student per year against an average of Rs 30,000 annual fees charged per student by private schools. Yet BMC school students lag far behind private school students

Mumbai, 18th December, 2012: At the press conference organised by Praja Foundation to launch its latest White paper on the state of education in Municipal schools of Mumbai, the message was clear: BMC schools are gravely mismanaged.

In the past 4 years (2009-2012), the average percentage of students passing SSC from private schools is 82% while the average passing students from municipal schools has been mere 58 %! In a citywide survey conducted by Praja Foundation along with Hansa Research during April this year, 61% of these BMC school students attend private tuitions as well! The survey also revealed that almost 89 per cent of families whose children went to municipal schools want to send their kids to private schools but high expenses of private schools inhibited them.

And while BMC schools are free for students, the Corporation spends more money on a child than the fees charged by private schools. From RTI data sourced by Praja Foundation, the Municipal Corporation in the city spends upwards of Rs 50,000 per child per year, while private aided schools in Mumbai that include schools like Don Bosco, St. Mary’s, Podar, St. Stanislaus, Balmohan, IES, etc. charge anywhere between Rs 15,000 to Rs 36,000 per student per year. The teacher-student ratio in municipal schools is not bad either. BMC schools average out at 35 students per teacher, almost at par or perhaps even better than private schools.

Calling this “a mockery of tax payers’ money”, Nitai Mehta, Founder Trustee of Praja Foundation stated, “It is time we need to stop making excuses. And take some tough decisions. Our White Paper on state of education in municipal schools of Mumbai reveals the sheer magnitude of apathy and mismanagement of education by the civic body.”

The White Paper reveals several shocking truths: Out of the 100 students who received Government of India scholarship in Class IV, only 9 were from BMC schools. Another scholarship scheme by Government of India for Class VII students had only 2 students from BMC schools out of 100! In the White Paper, Praja Foundation has also published the inspection report on municipal school teachers

In three wards.In D ward, (Malabar Hill, Grant Road, Napeansea Road area) over 84% of teachers received good to excellent report on most teaching attributes like explaining the subject matter, teaching methods etc.The passing percentage in D ward municipal schools is mere 51% and the BMC schools in this ward havethe highest drop-out rates at 11.5%! “In fact, most inspection reports appear to be a mere formality as most teachers are rated good to excellent in most inspecting parameters. The outcome in terms of results and performance by students, however, tell an entirely different story,” said Milind Mhaske, Project Director, Praja Foundation.

Clearly, money is not the issue here. Explained Nitai Mehta. “To be fair to BMC, the budgetary allocation on education seems to be adequate. However, it seems the BMC budget on education is spent more on contractors and to meet the expenses of staff rather than students and their education. To me it seems there is a huge amount of mismanagement and lack of accountability on the part of the custodians of municipal education.” Indeed, in almost 7 months, only 68 questions were asked by 227 corporators on education in the BMC committee and general body meetings.

“It is obvious that our city custodians including elected representatives need to overhaul the management of education in BMC schools. If elected representatives are accountable to the public at large, even teachers are accountable to the performance of their students. In today’s rapidly evolving social and economic environment, civic education deserves a high priority. Or else the gap is bound to widen. One dreads to think of the long-term impact of such disparity in education,” said Nitai Mehta.

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About PRAJA Foundation:

PRAJA was founded in 1997 by a group of eight Mumbaites with a vision to re-establish accountability and transparency in governance. These individuals were fuelled by a concern about a general lack of interest among the Citizens' in the local government. Praja aims to create awareness among the citizens, and therefore empower them though the knowledge.

PRAJA believes that the availability of information can go a long way towards simplifying people’s lives and evoking participation. This aims to ensure aholistic approach for ushering good governance must have buy in of our ideas from the elected representatives. At the same time, there should be tools and mechanisms which enable citizens to keep a close watch on the work done by their elected representatives.

PRAJA's goals are simplifying people's lives, empowering the citizens and government with facts and creating instruments of change to improve the quality of life of citizens in India. PRAJA is committed to creating an accountable and efficient society through people's participation.