The Indian Express             02.09.2013

To check dropout rate, civic body likely to start anganwadis at its schools

The proposal, mooted by the civic body's education committee, says BMC should start upper and lower KG classes to attract more children.

These classes will be run at a minimal cost in semi-English and English-medium schools.

"In BMC schools, there is no provision for pre-primary schooling, due to which children have to go to private schools. Later, they might not want to switch to a civic school even though they are not as expensive," said Manoj Kotak, chairman of BMC's education committee.

Currently, about 3.85 lakh children study in 1,174 civic primary schools across the city, while over 60,000 children study in 145 secondary schools.

NGO Praja Foundation's white paper on the "status of municipal education in Mumbai" says that the dropout rate rose from 4 per cent in 2010-2011 to 7 per cent in 2011-2012.

The report also says that less than a decade ago, the municipal education system used to cater to over 7.5 lakh students, but now attracts less than 4.5 lakh students.

Civic officials said the plan to begin anganwadis is in the preliminary stage and suggestions from various stakeholders will be taken into account.

"In our initial survey, when parents were asked why they prefer to send their children to a private school, many said it was because they did not have to go through the admission process again up till class X, which is not the case with BMC schools," said Milind Mhaske of PRAJA Foundation.

The Indian Express             22.08.2013

Sardar Patel plays key role in AMC’s ‘rashtra bhavna’

After Patel's recent presence on the cover page of textbooks published by the Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) that carried his picture and highlighted his achievements and also a justification for building the much-hyped highest "statue of unity", the municipal school board made it a point to pay tributes to Sardar Patel as nation's "Lohpurush".

Various activities that revolved around Sardar Patel included separate reading and writing weeks, debate competition and "rashtra bhavna jagran" rally. The ongoing "writing week" that will continue till August 24 includes similar content on Sardar Patel taken from the textbook cover page that will be dictated to students by teachers and municipal school board teams that will visit different schools throughout this week.

However, the only two other personalities listed by the AMC school board in writing exercise are Swami Vivekanand and Mahatma Gandhi. In another activity, among three subjects for the debate competition for students of Class VI-VIII that was organised on August 13, "Bharat ki ekta ka prateek - Sardar Patel" was the one that evoked maximum entries. The other two topics included "malnutrition - save mother and child" and "what I like the most".

"Though it is carried out by the school board for the first time, the aim of this month-long drive is to make students realise the importance of independence and evoke national feelings among them. There could not be denying the fact that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has a very important role in building the nation and it would not be wrong to pay tributes to him during rashtra bhavna month. It is mere a coincidence that the year coincides with the foundation stone laying ceremony of the statue of unity," said AMC school board chairperson Jagdish Bhavsar.