Survey finds 8,126 children out of school in Mumbai

8,126 children in the city are out of school, according to a survey conducted by the BMC on Saturday.
The BMC deployed 14,124 civic staff for the survey, including 11,587 teachers. The survey aimed at identifying and ultimately schooling children who have no access to education.

Of the 8,126 out-of-school children, 4,480 were boys and 3,646 were girls.

Srinivas Myana, secondary school teacher with the Hansraj Morarji Public School, said, "The survey experience was good. It is a good initiative by our government to bring back out of school children. We saw that some of the parents were hesitant to give details of their children."

Mohandas Poojari, another teacher of Hansraj Morarji Public School, who was also on field for the survey, said, "We went to more than 40 families in Juhu Galli and Dangarwadi in Juhu for the survey. We were able to find 10 children out of school and gave their details to the officials."

Recently the member of Unaided Schools Forum were shocked and agitated to receive the circulars from Pune Municipal Corporation and Thane Municipal Corporation. The circular directed the teachers to visit slum areas, brick kilns, bus stands, railway stations and footpaths to find children who are out of school.

SC Kedia, secretary of Unaided Schools Forum said, "These circulars are totally illegal and void. One cannot imagine that teachers who are employed for the noble cause of education could be directed to do these street duties. Our schools, other than minority schools, are under obligation only to admit students under the provision of RTE Act and they are not under obligation to do such surveys."