07 January,2011 07:24 AM IST | | Alifiya Khan
At Rs 22,000 per student, PMC spends a little more than reputable private schools do, but delivers little
For the most part of last year, parents of Rosary School group protested over the exorbitant fees being charged by the school authorities. But little known is the fact that the school charges the same amount as what a civic school claims to spend on each of its student.
As the school board (SB) of the civic corporation got around Rs 207 crore approved for its spending on education for the coming year, MiD DAY found out that private school education is cheaper in the city than the civic schools.
For example, sending your child to a medium-budget well known city school can cost you anything between Rs 16,000 to Rs 23,000 in annual school fees including uniform and text books. It may interest you to know that even the PMC's SB claims to spend the same amount on every student each year.
The PMC runs about 300 schools including primary and secondary schools with a total student population of around 98,000. Taking that into account, the school board has asked for around Rs 22,000 per student. There is no dearth of problems at civic schools including increasing dropout rates, shortage of teachers, crumbling school building deemed unsafe by engineers, nullahs running next to drinking water facilities among many others. So where is the Rs 22,000 being spent?
"The school board is only interested in tenders, salaries of unsanctioned posts of teachers and purchases. Where is the money being spent on education? There is no drinking water in schools. There are unclean toilets.
There is just one teacher for a class of 60. Why are their expenses more than a private school?" asks activist Vijay Kumbhar who had exposed a scam in SB's purchases.
MiD DAY found that for less than Rs 22,000, one could get education in a private school with facilities that are unheard of in civic schools. Here's a comparison of a few private schools vis- -vis civic schools in terms of fees and facilities.
Playground, sports
PMC runs around 300 schools out of which around 198 have no playgrounds or even open spaces. The few schools that had open space, complaints of encroachment have been lodged. Most schools do not have regular teachers; posts of sports teachers are non-existent in a few.
At the same time, most private schools have at least one playground besides regular sporting events and even interschool competitions.
For instance, Abhinav English Medium School at Kothrud, which is quite well-known for its sports teams, charges around Rs 18,000 as annual fees including tuition and books besides Rs 900 for playground activities including athletics, gymnastics, basketball and other sports.
"Students don't get basic facilities in civic schools, forget about sports grounds or teachers. PMC had a
proposal to hand over schools to the private players.
Maybe they should do that as the latter can give better facilities at the same costs," said Vivek Velankar, an RTI activist.
Loo, drinking water
The state of toilets in the PMC schools has been a much debated subject during last year. A survey carried out by a group of 30 NGO's across civic schools found that 48 per cent of them were in such a deplorable state that many girl students preferred to drop out of schools than use them.
Worse than this, more than one in three schools had drinking water taps that didn't work and hence students didn't even have access to basics like drinking water.
At the same time, private schools like Symbiosis School charge around Rs 21,000 in annual fees. Besides clean toilets on every floor, separate toilets with special facilities for girls and boys and UV filters attached to drinking water taps, the school has medical and other facilities for the children. "In Rs 21,000 we take care of a child's all round development making sure s/he is as safe and comfortable at the school he or she is at home," said Leena Chaudhari, principal.
Other facilities
The school board has a computer room for senior students but most students complain that they aren't allowed to touch them. Regular computer classes are a rare feature in such cases while activities like elocution; essay competitions, school projects and science expos are unheard of.
At the same time, a private school like City International School which is affiliated to the CBSE board offers computer education right from the primary section, well-equipped science labs, modern teaching aids like educational toys, regular entertainment programmes like school festivals and skits.
Yet while the PMC cannot manage the same at a cost of Rs 22,000 per student, an unaided school like City International manages the same at Rs 17,000 to Rs 19,000 per student.
