The death of the public school...a preventable tragedy?

     It was a summer morning in  2030 and a kid picked up a newspaper ..He quickly asked me what were (erstwhile) Inner city /Municipal schools? When did they exist and  Why did they vanish?
      For a moment let's get back to current day in 2014. Where our public schools are very much present but  do they really exist for the common 'middle' class? Does any one care to read or know about them expect the people looking to exploit them for private gain?
Is Public Private Partnership in Education the death knell for the Government Schools in the country?
    Almost 2500 classrooms in municipal schools in Mumbai,India have bee given away to various NGOs/Trusts Under the School Adoption/School Support Programme. Almost 650 classrooms for non educational purposes, and quite a few are using it for Education but are being commercially exploited.
Despite notices given to almost 650 NGOs asking them to vacate  the classrooms, the department has been able to recover only 16/18 classrooms as on date after a period of almost 6/7 months.

     CACR members have observed many classrooms/schools being exploited commercially too, a case of Varun International School functioning within a municipal school and not only depriving the children of all facilities and amenities like free uniforms, school books, notebooks, etc. but also asking the parents to pay fees of Rs.5000/Rs.10,000 and even punishing the children in classrooms when they fail to pay within a stipulated time.
    Moreover this NGO not only exploits and uses more number of classrooms than specified in the agreement, but also is able to issue School Leaving Certificates to children from the BMC, despite functioning as a private school, paying a miserly rent of Rs.1000 to the corporation....Recently this matter was bought to light by the print media here.
There are also some more instances of MS-CIT courses being provided within a municipal school, charging fees of Rs.3150/child and enrolling hundreds of children for this course, with no facility for the municipal school children....schools converted to Junior Colleges, private schools, etc. large scale commercial exploitation.
In a way, if the Government seriously decides to implement the 25% reservation clause for EWS in private and aided schools, which it has not done in the last 3 years of the RTE Act, there will be further reduction in enrollments in municipal schools, since parents prefer to send children to private schools and English medium schools, etc. So indeed our future generations will  read in newspapers that the Municipal schools existed somewhere in the past and are a extinct phenomenon now.

2030: PUBLIC SCHOOLS   Now extinct 

CACR is facing a herculean task of ensuring retention of children in municipal schools despite the huge amount of tax payer money budgeted for primary education.
Absolutely shocking state of affairs in such an important issue like basic primary education, in the country.
But then does the 'common middle class' care enough to do something about it?
Do join us to build a PUBLIC VOICE to save the vanishing structures called Municipal public schools

Nitin_CACR

Remember we NEVER stop hoping!

"Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life's deepest joy: true fulfillment." --Tony Robbins

In my experience -Whenever we identify a problem, it is in the larger interests to review the same from all possible angles before working out the necessary solution.

Based on the periodical feedback received from many of our CACR volunteers, while visiting neighborhood municipal schools, we have been interacting with the hierarchy of the BMC Education Department and expressing our concerns and suggesting solutions to them.
        CACR members have been meeting the Administrative Officers(Schools), the Deputy Education Officers of the zones, the Superintendents, the Education Officer, the Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Education ) as well as the Additional Municipal Commissioner (City and Education).

 BUT  The one link missing in this chain was the Labour Unions and it was extremely shocking to know that there are almost 38 Unions registered with the Municipal Corporation as on date, with about 7 of them handling the teachers and administrative staff of the Education Department.

It has been observed that many administrative staff and teachers do not follow or fear the authorities since they get a back up support from their respective unions.(Ya, Unions can be powerful)

The questions to be asked are:-

1. Are these unions really concerned about the fact that the budgets and expenditure is increasing and the number of children in these schools is dwindling?

2. Are the children enrolled in municipal schools getting quality education, good enough to compare with the private and aided schools?

3. With the 25% reservation clause for children belonging to the Economically Weaker Sections, in private and aided schools, there will be a further reduction in enrollments in municipal schools. What are these unions doing to counter this challenge?

4. The authorities feel that there can be better accountability and functioning of these schools if they get into Public Private Partnerships with various NGOs. Incase this is implemented, the BMC employed well paid and well qualified teachers will have nothing to do, and the NGOs will not be able to provide the same job security, salaries, perks and benefits, etc as the municipal corporation does.

5. What steps are the Unions taking to ensure improved accountability of the teachers and administrative staff and ensure that these schools do not shut down?

6. Are these Unions ever concerned about the rights of children and do they have any point in their agenda which talks about the welfare of the children going to these municipal schools?

Armed with all these questions in my mind...I will pay a visit to the Union offices in the coming days...to get their side of the story and Can we put together and find a solution?

Perhaps YES! ...Remember we NEVER stop hoping! 

Nitin_CACR