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Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will now be providing notebooks to municipal school students from August 10 to September 9. Parents will be called to the school to collect the notebooks. The BMC has already distributed about 17, 49,670 textbooks to students from Class I- VIII. There are about 2.64 lakh students who study in the 1, 150 civic-run schools in eight different languages across Mumbai city.
While the textbooks were provided as grant from the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and hence the textbooks were also provided to students of private-aided schools in the city, education officer Mahesh Palkar told thenews21. During the regular academic year, the BMC provides 27 items to students including stationary, school bags, raincoats, water bottles shoes etc. However, with the schooling having shifted online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as of now the BMC has provided students only with textbooks and notebooks.
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About 60% of the students are able to access online education in BMC schools since June 15, when the schools opened virtually, Palkar informed. The education is delivered in the form of providing links on WhatsApp, Google classrooms, Zoom etc. The BMC had already introduced the concept of virtual classroom teaching for some time now. About 55 of the civic schools were used up as quarantine centers but now most of them have been vacated and handed back to the education department.
Recently, during the heavy flooding on August 5, the BMC schools had been opened up to serve as temporary shelters to those stranded in various parts of the city. As of now, the state has stayed opening up of schools till August 31. The education department is awaiting further orders from the state on opening up of schools. The state is also yet to take a call on how to conduct online exams.
