MUMBAI: Just 25 benches for a classroom of 70 students, garbage-strewn classrooms lying unused and toilets in an unsanitary condition were among the findings of a civic audit of the Mumbai Public School in Colaba, which flagged a series of basic infrastructure and maintenance gaps.The school also has no CCTV cameras or playground, sanitary pads for girls were unavailable, and several water taps did not open, according to the audit conducted by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) under its “School Thik Karo” campaign.The CJP has issued an ultimatum to the civic administration to resolve all the deficiencies flagged during the audit within a month, failing which it has threatened to hold a protest over the condition of the school.Students of Standards I, II and III were found sitting together in a large hall, while other classrooms could not be used because of accumulated garbage. The audit also found a Telugu-medium section operating from the premises without teachers.The school is currently functioning from a building near Colaba Market after its original Mumbai Public School premises were declared structurally unsafe. The original school had a capacity of around 3,700 students, while the present school has around 2,700.Pranay Ahire, Mumbai member of the CJP, said nearly 1,000 students had left after the shift, with some moving to private schools and others dropping out of education altogether.“At a time when more and more students need to be enrolled in public schools, the move has actually caused a reduction,” Ahire said.BMC education officer Sujata Khare said the fall in enrolment could partly be linked to the distance of the new premises.“There may have been a reduction in the number of students due to the distance of the new school, but some students also went to other municipal schools,” she said.On students from Standards I, II and III being taught together, Khare said, “For vernacular mediums like Gujarati, Telugu, there are very few students per standard, so they have to be taught together. It is a common practice.”The absence of CCTV cameras, however, was acknowledged as an issue. Khare said, “Since the shifting of the students to the new school, the cameras have not been installed.”She added that the headmaster of the school had been summoned to provide a clear account of the situation and the issues flagged at the school.The CJP will also hold an all-Mumbai meeting on August 21 to chalk out a comprehensive plan for auditing civic schools across the city.
