Bad news for poor as Mumbai clamps down on primary schools

In a major measure, Mumbai’s municipal corporation has sent legal notices to 249 private primary schools asking them to shut down. The step threatens to disrupt the already inadequate educational scenario in the city, reports Hepzi Anthony.

In a major clampdown, the Mumbai municipal corporation has sent legal notices to 249 private primary schools, asking them to shut down.

Most of these schools that have been threatened with being declared unauthorised are small schools that mostly run in the slums and cater to children from the poorer sections of society.

The notices have also threatened them with fines up to Rs 1 lakh, or Rs 10,000 for every day that they continue to function 'illegally', according to Prakash Charate, deputy director (private primary schools ) in Mumbai municipal corporation's education department.

This is a drastic step that threatens to alter and disrupt the already inadequate educational scenario in Mumbai. There are 1,100 private schools in Mumbai reaching out to a student community of over 4.5 lakh. This is apart from the 3.9 lakh students that study in Mumbai’s municipal schools.

“These notices were sent after our beat officers surveyed and found that these schools lacked basic facilities such as proper 360 sq ft classrooms, Diploma in Education-trained teachers, a compound wall or even a playground,” explains Ritu Tawde, former chairperson of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's education committee

“Taking into consideration the problem of shortage of open spaces in Mumbai, we have decided to ignore the provision for requirement of a playground for a school. We are now saying that if a school has an open space within the range of a kilometre, where the students can be taken to for playing, then it can be considered as a school facility,” she adds.

Schools are also expected to provide drinking water, toilet facilities and a library.

Despite overlooking the lack of a playground, these schools still did not fit the bill of being called a ‘school’, as per the provisions of the Right to Education Act, 2009.

When this Act was enacted by Parliament, it had allowed schools three years to meet the criteria listed. It has been six years since, and still many of the 672 private unaided schools in Mumbai have been found wanting on many counts.

But, how did the number swell so much?

“Earlier, people would start a school and only if they reached the required student strength and facility, would they be expected to apply and seek recognition from the municipal corporation. Many schools came into operation earlier like this, but now with the emergence of the RTE Act in 2009 the entire system turned topsy-turvy and the schools were caught off-guard,” says an education department official, who is not authorised to speak to the media.

“Many of these schools facing de-recognition are run in slums, and they can’t even find the space to build a compound wall around them,” he adds.

The schools are yet to face the heat, as Maharashtra is still debating whether the penalty amount should be pocketed by the state government or the local self-government authorities.

Twenty-five years ago, P Ayyadurai started his school, the Little Flower, at Jari Mari in the slums adjoining the Mumbai international airport, to educate the poor children in his neighbourhood.

What started off as a small social initiative turned into a proper school with classes up to Standard X. He would provide free education to the handicapped and even enroll Tamil medium students and help them appear for Standard X examinations.

Even now, he claims that his fees of ‘less than Rs 500 per month’ is nominal and the lowest among other English medium schools in his area. But now he has been informed that his school should be shut down.

A common ground nearby serves as a playground for three other schools like his.

Kamlesh Pandey runs the Kamlesh Pandey High School at Sakinaka in Andheri east. His school adjoins the footpath of the 90-ft Road on D’Souza Nagar, and the school’s flagpost has been built right on the footpath. Vehicles are parked right in front of the school.

“I will build a wall around the school and clear the space downstairs to provide for a play area for the students. Most of my documents have been cleared except one, and I hope to get recognition for my school soon,” Pandey says confidently.

Former corporator from Jari Mari, S Annamalai, raises a question: “When the BMC’s own educational facility is so pathetic, why are they insisting on shutting down even the sparse private educational network that exists here? It is so difficult to run schools in these slums. This cannot be allowed to happen.”

He details the sad state of affairs at the local municipal schools. “Even today, the Jari Mari Urdu municipal school is in such a bad shape that 40 students study in a single 10X10 sq ft room. The students are made to sit on the floor and study, since it would be impossible to accommodate them all if benches were to be put there,” he says.

“The civic schools do not even have their own premises in this area. I provided space in my own house at Jari Mari for two years without charging rent, so that the poor students in my area could study. Later, we constructed the school ourselves so that the children could study more comfortably.”

Ironically, many of the schools facing de-recognition continue to take in admissions for the next academic year.

Many of the parents are unaware that the schools are in danger of being de-recognised.

The list of such schools is not available on any public forum or even on the BMC’s own website.

“People will have to file a query under the Right to Information Act in the local municipal ward office to find if their child’s school is recognised or not. Schools are expected to display the Certificate of Recognition. Parents should be more alert and insist on seeing the certificate. Otherwise, there is no other way to find out about the status of their child’s school,” cautions Tawde.

Member of Legislative Council (Teacher’s Constituency) Kapil Patil feels that the emphasis should be on education and not on the facilities.

“Providing education for all is a state responsibility and the government should extend support to private schools in propagating that role, rather than clamp down on it,” he says.

He questions the state’s motive in clamping down on small schools and accuses the government of weeding small players out of the educational system.

“I got Rs 34 crore sanctioned to provide toilets in 634 schools. It’s almost three years now and the government still refuses to let out the sanctioned funds for the purpose. How do you expect schools in slums that share walls with houses to come up with compound walls?” he says.

Farida Lambay, founder-president of Pratham, a non-governmental organisation working for children, feels that things work both ways.

“Some private schools have become profit-making initiatives where the infrastructure is not good and teachers are not paid well. They have come up because of the huge demand for private schools. The point is that these private schools are doing well; the reason being, that the government system has really failed them and second, because parents have no choice of another school in that particular area. Implementation of the RTE Act has to be considered in its totality.”

“One of the things that the government can do is by keeping its own house in order, ie, by really upgrading its own schools, so that people don’t have to go to the private ones. The other way could be to provide aid to the existing good schools to help in the task. Like for example in Maharashtra, most of the Christian missionary schools are aided, and they are really reaching out to the poorest of the poor,” says Lambay.

She feels that the entire school education of the child right from preschool to Standard X should be brought under the purview of the RTE Act. 

It’s ultimately the poor, who look at education as a means of economic upliftment, who have got caught in this quagmire.

A parent whose child studies at one of the schools facing de-recognition explains, “I studied only till Standard V in a vernacular school. I wanted my children to study at an English medium school. I used to pay Rs 800 a month, along with a one-time admission fee that has to be paid at the beginning of an academic year. This school displays its fees on the board and tells us clearly that we should take admission only if we are able to afford it.”

“Even though the higher standard is aided by the state and is meant to be free for us, the school charges a hefty fee of Rs 7,000 as admission fee,” he says.

When asked about the prospect of de-recognition of her child’s school, she says: “This is the closest primary school for us. We can’t take our kids far in a bus.”

And no, the free vernacular municipal school nearby is no option for her, because she wants English education for her children. The good news,. though, is that the BMC is gearing up with more semi-English medium schools.