BMC to merge schools with low strength

Mumbai: The schools run by the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which have only between zero to thirty students, will now be merged with adjacent civic schools. For this, around 72 schools have been shortlisted by the education department of the civic body. On merging them, the students will be shifted to another school that falls under a1 km radius so the students do not suffer due to this merger. “By this, we are trying to bring more students to each school instead of a small number of students in various schools. Till now in many schools teachers were teaching four to five students in a class. Now we will shift the entire class to another school.” said a senior officer of the department.

This move was taken upon considering the Teacher Pupil Ratio (TPR) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The TPR for both primary and upper primary is 30:1 and 35:1 respectively. Moreover, according to officials, the right number of students in the class will increase the class activity.  “Merger is happening because of a large number of dropouts in several schools but that won’t affect the existing students. Seeing less number of students in a class demotivates the students and thus merging the classes will increase the number of students in a class and give better exposure to the existing students.” said the official.

When asked if the parents were happy with this move, he said “We discussed it with the parents first and they are okay with the idea. Moreover, the entire merger is happening between schools that are within a 1 km distance one another. So it won’t be a big problem for them as well.”

Once a school is merged with another, the first school will be entirely shut down as a school but will be used for other educational purposes. Neeta Balan, Education Officer, who is in charge of the project for merging the schools said “Most of the schools are already merged. So the schools which are not schools any more will be used by the education department officials for educational purposes. No other activities will be held in these school buildings.”