Shut because they didn't have any students, BMC wants to convert 35 Marathi schools to English and reopen them

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to restart 35 of its Marathi-medium schools in the city, which were closed down in the last several years owing to a lack of students, with English as the medium of instruction. The education department recently tabled a proposal about its plan to restart these schools, in the civic house, during a meeting of group leaders of various parties.

According to a survey by the NGO Praja,  annual dropout rate in 2016 from Marathi-medium schools stand at 13 per cent. 55 % of parents said that they were dissatisfied with the quality of education, while 45 % said that they were unhappy with the facilities

"Rather than having the place lying unused, it is better to hand over the schools to experienced, private organisations for its functioning. This is the decision that was taken in the meeting," Yashwant Jadhav, Shiv Sena leader in the house of the BMC said. "These days, people prefer their children to study in English medium schools. Therefore, we have decided to restart these schools in English medium," he said. Jadhav said that partnering with private institutions like NGOs would yield positive results.

Raising objections, the leader of the Congress, Ravi Raja alleged that the BMC had failed to run the civic schools effectively and that his party does not accept the proposal of private partners being roped in. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Dilip Lande, in the meeting, demanded that Marathi should continue to be the medium of instruction in such schools.