Unable to pay Rs 30 lakh fee, BMC ditches international curriculum

The dream to start international curriculum in civic runs school received a jolt as the date to deposit fees for affiliation, annual accreditation and teacher's training elapsed. Now, the BMC will have to wait for another year.

The education committee of BMC has refused to pay approximately Rs 30 lakh fee sought by the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB).

A senior official from BMC's Education department said that they had sent a list of 62 schools, of which eight were selected for the international curriculum. However, MIEB asked fees for the affiliation and accreditation. The last date to deposit was May 2. BMC's education refused to pay the fee and the department could not send its consent letters to become part of the MIEB.

At present, the fee for affiliation is Rs 30,000 while Rs 10,000 for annual accreditation. For eight schools, the BMC would have required Rs 2.4 lakh, if it had decided to pay the fee. In addition, the fee for teacher's training was Rs 25,000. "We required around 90 to 100 teachers for all eight schools. The BMC's education budget for 2019-20 is Rs 2,733 crore. Around 500 students were supposed to be enrolled in all eight schools.

The official said that in February, they had sent letter to the state education department and requested for waiver but there was no response from the state education department. There is a fee waiver for municipal council, but there is no provision for municipal corporation.

Around 100 schools are planned to start under the board from this academic year. Initially, the medium of instruction will be Marathi and selected schools would be first allowed to run pre-primary to Class 3.

Sainath Durge, BMC's education committee member said that they did not get the curriculum. "We had asked to give presentation regarding the curriculum and the teaching methodology. But, we did not get response," said Durge.