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To arrest dropout rate, BMC budged to focus on tablets, more virtual classrooms

The BMC's education budget which would be tabled Wednesday afternoon is expected to focus on raising the quality of education with intervention of technology.

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The BMC's education budget which would be tabled Wednesday afternoon is expected to focus on raising the quality of education with intervention of technology.

According to a highly placed source, 400 more virtual classrooms could be announced in the proposal, in addition to converting more vernacular schools into semi-English medium.

The civic body also aims to focus on computerisation of more of its schools. It plans a pilot project to give laptops to Std 8 students, and a related provision could find place in the budget, said an official.

All these proposals aim to arrest the dropout rate. The civic body has lost over 42,000 students in the last five years mainly from vernacular primary schools.

While estimates for the upcoming budget could not be obtained, officials say a budget cut is unlikely as the BMC wants to attract more children to municipal schools.

Civic education got an uplifting shot in the fiscal ending March 2015 with a massive provision of Rs2,660.44 crore, which was 25% up from the 2013-14 allocation of Rs2,115 crore.

Only 14% edu budget used up in 2014-15; many projects stay on paper
While education budget 2014-15 had raised the expectations of stakeholders, it has now emerged that a whopping 86% of the funds allocated for municipal schools could not utilized as may of the announced projects didn't take off."Every year, crores of rupees are left unused. As a result, several projects are affected. This year, too, the BMC has not done anything about it," said opposition leader Devendra Amberkar.

Among major projects which didn't take off this year are centralised kitchen and provision of distribution of nutritious chikki as part of midday meals. Several schools in slum areas continue to operate from cramped spaces. Toilets in many civic schools are unusable while their inadequacy is also an issue.

The civic body had announced two software to help keep tabs on the schools under its jurisdiction. One was the child tracking system to maintain data and attendance of each child in the 0-14 age group, and another was management information system to keep a close eye on the workings of the school and their day-to-day running. While work on these projects has taken off, they are yet to touch the ground. According to budget plans, a significant amount was set aside for repair and reconstruction of old school buildings. Some 250 regional schools into semi-English medium schools. The civic body has done satisfactorily in this regard.

Vindo Shelar, chairman of education committee, refused to comment, saying only, "I would not like to speak on this unless the budget is tabled."

Shambhavi Jogi, BMC education officer, refuted the claims. "Though I can't provide you the details, I can say the figures are incorrect. Some amount is left unused but that is not because our schemes didn't start. It is because the payments are yet to be made. In some cases, we have passed the tenders and work is just begun," she said. A major portion of the funds will be utilised before March-end, she said. However, sources admitted that even then they would not be able to utilise all funds.Jogi added, "There is no complaint from the schools about unusable toilets. We have constructed nine new schools this year. Five more schools are on the cards."

As for the child tracking system, she claimed, "Our system is ready but since we are collaborating with the state government, it would take some time to implement."

Over 4 lakh children are currently studying in 1,070 municipal primary schools.

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