27 September,2015 08:02 AM IST | | Ankoor Anvekar
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has planned to start night schools across its jurisdiction for underprivileged children who cannot attend day schools
Underprivileged kids
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has planned to start night schools across its jurisdiction for underprivileged children who cannot attend day schools. A trial run will begin from the forthcoming academic year. "The proposal has been sent. Initially, we will be conducting four-hour-long night classes on trial basis post 5 pm. Depending on the number of enrollments, we will decide how many night schools to set up between Digha and Belapur," said Amrish Patnigere, additional municipal commissioner and NMMC education department in-charge. He added that the schools will provide secondary education.
Survey conducted
This July, NMMC had conducted a survey on out-of-school children, which revealed that 1097 children in the satellite city do not have excess to education. Of these, 306 boys and 331 girls had never gone to school, while 276 boys and 184 girls were dropouts. Eighty-eight children were physically or mentally challenged and had never gone to school and among them were 39 girls and 49 boys between the ages of 6 to 14 years.
As per the survey, a majority of them belonged to economically weaker sections.
Currently, under NMMC's jurisdiction, there are 68 municipal schools, 128 pre-primary schools, 68 anganwadis, and 128 primary and 80 secondary schools. As per data received from NMMC, over 23,000 children in the area go to municipal schools, while more than a lakh go to private institutions. As per the 2011 census, Navi Mumbai has an average literacy rate of 91.57 per cent and a population of 1,119, 477.
