Pune civic body chief orders all schools cleaned

Pune’s new municipal commissioner, Mahesh Pathak, has apparently taken serious note of the shoddy infrastructure in the schools managed by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

Pathak on Friday instructed education officer, Ramchandra Jadhav, to address all problems related to toilets, drinking water, cleanliness and hygiene at the schools run by the municipal corporation, before schools reopen on June 15.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of teachers of PMC-run schools organised by the education board, regarding enrollment of children below six years in schools.

Pathak asked Jadhav to ensure that cleaning and repair works of all the toilets, especially those for girl students, water tanks used for storage of potable water, broken doors, smashed floor and windowpanes are done two days before the schools start.

Speaking about the student enrollment awareness programme, Pathak said, “Our primary motive is to identify children below six years of age, who are out of the ambit of school, and make their parents aware to enroll them in schools.”

“The teachers will primarily go to slum areas where the student enrollment rate is low,” Pathak said.

According to a survey conducted by the education board, 634 children below six years are yet to get enrolled in schools, he added.

“We are also trying to reach street children at traffic signals, railway stations and bus stands in order to enroll them in mobile schools,” he said.

The student enrollment programme will be held between June 15 and 30.

On PMC-run English medium schools where after standard VIII most of the students face problem in getting admission in other schools, he tried to pass the buck to parents and said, “It is the responsibility of the parents to get admission in other schools after standard VIII.”

However, later he said, “This year, most of the students managed to get admissions in various schools, but we will construct schools for such students and will hand over charge to a private school.”

When asked about 10,000 students dropping out of civic body-run schools, Pathak said, “As the economic background of parents change they prefer non-PMC schools for their children.”