Civic teachers to take lessons

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to train municipal school teachers to sensitise them to children with learning disabilities and minimising the student dropout rate. BMC will appoint consultants to bring teaching standards at par with those used in private schools, especially for English and Mathematics.

Additional municipal commissioner Kishore Gajbhiye is expected to design training modules for the course intended for the 2,000-odd teachers by the end of this year.

Gajbhiye said poor quality of teaching was responsible for the increase in dropout rates in municipal schools. The dropout rate in 2006 was 34 per cent, even as 1,198 municipal schools recorded an increase in the number of students from 3,93,936 for 2006-07 batch to 4,12,864 for 2007-08 batch.

“There will be a marked change in the quality of teaching and the number of dropouts will reduce,” said Gajbhiye. Gajbhiye pointed out that many teachers in municipal schools were unaware of learning disabilities in children. “Such children were dismissed as dumb or beaten up by teachers,” said Gajbhiye.

SS Shinde, deputy municipal commissioner (education), said that 600 newly-appointed teachers will
work on improving their English first. He added that municipal school teachers lacked confidence to
converse in English.

“We have received proposals from Oxford English Coaching Agency. Training will involve improving leadership qualities. It will also include making them aware of the BMC Act procedures,” said Shinde.