Click to play videoMumbai: Mumbai's municipal schools are in a dismal state. An RTI obtained by CNN-IBN reveals a high dropout rate, a dearth of teachers, and rampant mismanagement, which are just some of the problems plaguing the system.
The elections to control the country's richest civic corporation Brihan Mumbai Corporation (BMC), are just a month away, but questions raised about municipal education in Mumbai have thrown up disturbing answers.
The BMC's own figures show a sky-high dropout rate in Mumbai's 1000 odd municipal schools. Just 10 per cent of primary school students make it to secondary school.
Information about random schools in the city obtained through the RTI Act shows a Ghatkopar school with just 13 students, and another school with just one teacher on the rolls.
An English and Marathi medium school at Grant Road is a large four-storeyed structure, but has only 24 students in its primary section, with three teachers, drawing a salary of Rs 10,80,000 a year. In its English medum primary section, there are 63 students with just one teacher. A walk through its corridors revealed only one teacher actually teaching inside. The entire second floor of the school has been leased out to two NGOs.
Another school, right in the middle of Dadar, has a full-fledged private gym operating on its ground floor. Municipal schools treated as prime office space for political parties and private enterprises are becoming the norm.
Municipal authorities refused to comment on this, but activists feel the Right to Education Act that was implemented in Maharashtra in 2010, exists only on paper.
Education activist Jayant Jain, education activist said, "The government is not taking effort to implement this. There is no authority to check on education. Tamil Nadu has already got a circular out to ensure Right to Education. We have yet to do so."
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