Only 8 of 72 schools agree to run under MIEB so far

Mumbai: Of the 72 schools shortlisted by the education department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to function as International Schools under the newly curated Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB), only eight have given their confirmation. The reason: the high fees charged by the board, whi-ch is supposed to be paid by the selected schools.

As per the MIEB, for a provisional affiliation, BMC schools need to pay Rs 20,000 to the board, which will be for a period of three years. As per them, this is nominal pay, which will be used for the training of teachers and curriculum development of the schools under the board.

However, schools are resisting the idea, which is why many are not responding to the proposal even after being shortlisted for conversion to international schools.

Along with the fees, Rs 25,000 is supposed to be paid by all category schools for the annual teacher-training programme.

BMC officials are currently persuading schools to convert, but they themselves aren’t sure if the money will be reimbursed in the future or not.

“Schools run under BMC are quite different from private ones, especially if we scrutinise them according to financial graphs. Even though the shortlisted ones are the best of best, in the case of finance, they might fall short, and hence the resistance,” an official said.

The department is coordinating with the state education department in order to find a solution to this problem. In total, across the state 215 have been shortlisted, including the 72 civic schools.

In this project, involving civic schools, self-financed schools, private-aided schools and Zilla Parishad schools, a final 100 schools will be selected which will be affiliated under MIEB as international schools.