Mumbai: After 7 years, BMC pushes for schools’ privatisation again

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC has decided to open up land for schools to be developed by private partiesmdasha proposal rejected thrice earlierThis time itrsquos serious EOIs Expressions of Interest are being invited after the state government greenlit the proposal in 2023 The plan which was previously rejected in 2012 and then in 201718 is to hand over some of its municipal school properties to private organisations under a PublicPrivate Partnership PPP modelVacant land at Kumbharwada Marine LinesWhy is a plan rejected three times across party lines being brought back now To understand this policy revival and to dive deeper into what it could mean for public education in Mumbai Sunday midday spoke to civic officials educationists and other key stakeholdersWhatrsquos happeningThis time the BMC decided to give reserved plots to private parties who are working in the education field to build and run the schoolHowever education experts claim this is a move towards making the education system a paid oneA former officer of the civic education department said that the earlier proposals were for running the BMC school building and faced opposition But now the education department has decided to give land reserved for schools to private parties ldquoThis reservation canrsquot changerdquo he addedMultiple rejectionsThe PPP model for civic schools was first tabled in 2012 but faced strong opposition from elected corporators across political parties The proposal was tabled again in 2017 and at that time the aim was to restart 35 municipal schools most of them vernacular medium which had been shut down due to dwindling enrolment The idea was to revive these as Englishmedium schools entirely managed by private entities However the education committee rejected the planldquoThere were serious concerns about exclusionrdquo a former corporator told this reporter requesting anonymity ldquoOne of the criteria required private organisations to have an annual turnover of R 5 crore This was seen as shutting the door on smaller NGOs and trusts which had experience but not financial musclerdquoOther corporators then including former Shiv Sena leaders Sheetal Mhatre and Snehal Ambekar demanded more transparency and oversight A major sticking point was the absence of a scrutiny committee which the then councillors demanded comprising the Mayor and Standing Committee ChairpersonDespite some support from within the civic body such as thenNCP corporator Dr Saeeda Khan and Rajpati Yadav of the Congress the proposal was shelved after its third rejection in June 2018Sushil Shejule Heramb Kulkarni educationist and Dr Amit Saini Additional Municipal CommissionerWhy nowWhile the state government policy of 2023 mentions adoption of the school the BMC has decided to give seven land parcels which are reserved for education purposes and which will be used only for school These schools will be run by private parties for 30 yearsAdditional Municipal Commissioner Dr Amit Saini says ldquoWe are giving school land not school buildings to the private parties These parties will run a school for 30 years with 25 per cent of seats reserved for RTE admissionrdquoAccording to the proposal the selected party can run any medium and any boarding school like HSC CBSE ICSE IGCSE or IB and the BMC will not put any restrictions on the fees although the school administration will be expected to follow government norms about fees The BMC is expected to earn revenue from the scheme with minor revenue sharing of 3 to 10 per cent every yearHowever critics point out that if this were simply about outcomes the BMC would invest in training infrastructure and governance reformmdashareas that remain underfundedConcerns resurfaceThe planned revival of the project has drawn sharp responses from educationists and rights activists Many argue that introducing private players into civic education could deepen inequalities Although some educationists argue that this may improve infrastructure and pedagogy in BMC schools many of which suffer from low enrolment and poor learning outcomes they also fear that privatisation would lead to high fees and kill the free education that civicrun schools providedActivists on the other hand fear this could be the back door to full privatisation and exclusion of underprivileged childrenTeachersrsquo unions have also expressed concern about job security and the fate of nonteaching staff while parent groups worry that access to free quality education could be compromised in the name of efficiencyActivists parents worriedBasanti Roy former Division Secretary of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Education Mumbai division said ldquoI can see this as a move towards paid education If the BMC is not ready to give free education then who will give it If the BMC takes this step because they are not getting students then how can private schools get students The BMC should question why if Zilla Parishad schools are getting students why not BMC schoolsrdquoArundhati Chavan President of the ParentTeacher Association United Forum said ldquoWhat about free education If a private party runs these schools they will decide feesmdashthere will be no control over the fees It will be the opposite of free education While BMCrun CBSE Board English medium schools are getting good responses from the parents then why does BMC need private parties to run schools on public landrdquo Chavan addedldquoThe first thing to understand here is the BMCrsquos motive behind the school privatisation planrdquo said Heramb Kulkarni a wellknown activist and educationist ldquoIs it being done simply to save money from the civic coffers If so that would be a misguided move The BMC should not withdraw funding from these schools and hand over complete control to private entities whether by granting them land parcels or operational rightsrdquoMoreover Kulkarni added the timeline for implementing a PublicPrivate Partnership PPP model should be strictly limited to five years ldquoExtending it to 30 years risks creating monopolies Renewals if necessary can be considered after five yearsrdquo he saidMarathi Study Centre member Sushil Shejule said ldquoThe BMC needs to ensure that these private administrations donrsquot turn education into a lucrative business Marathi schools should be given priority and it is recommended that education in the mother tongue should be given priority in the new education policy as wellrdquoBMCrsquos defenceSources in the BMC argue that the PPP model is a practical response to the crisis faced by civic education A senior BMC education officer said ldquoWe are not giving school buildings we are giving land to private parties which have excellent and bright experience in the fieldrdquoThe BMC is expected to shortlist eligible private organisations by mid2025 Construction of the schoold buildings is expected to take two to three years and the schools will start functioning only after thatHow many The numbers tell the story1129Schools run by BMC7398Number of teachers328348Total studentsRs 60000Cost to the BMC per student per yearatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params