In a first, the BMC education department had decided to provide school diaries to civic school students for the current academic year.
While civic schools are expected to provide students with stationery before the start of the academic year, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) school students have only recently started receiving school diaries, with the academic year drawing to a close.
The BMC has repeatedly been criticised for failing to provide 27 free items to students before the start of the academic year. These items include school bags, shoes, socks, notebooks, textbooks, umbrellas, uniforms, drawing kits, raincoats, pens, pencils and compass boxes.
In a first, the BMC education department had decided to provide school diaries to civic school students for the current academic year.
A teacher from a Mumbai Public School run by the BMC, said, "A week ago, the school received school diaries for students for the academic year 2016-2017. But, the dates mentioned in it are from November 1. What is the point in getting it now, we don't understand?" Echoing the sentiment, another teacher said, "In 2017, the BMC had declared that they will provide school diaries to our students, which was never given before. But our school has not yet received it, while some schools have got it only recently. I guess they are handing it out on a pilot project basis."
BMC education committee member Shivnath Darade said, "The decision of providing school diaries was not proposed before the BMC education committee. The department has taken this decision on its own. The reason they are providing these diaries so late is because they might have given the contract to someone after taking a decision this late. Instead of providing diaries now, when the academic year is nearly over, the department should provide proper report cards to students of classes IX and X. In 2016, class IX students were given progress report cards printed on plain papers."
When asked why diaries were being provided so late in the academic year, BMC education department officer Mahesh Palkar said, "We did not announce that we would provide diaries to students. The decision was taken in November. They were printed in December, and are being distributed now. Why is there an issue?
The distribution process is still on across civic schools."
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