Shirwadkar said the proposed attendance allowance for Marathi-medium schools would be in addition to the existing benefit for girls and would also include boys studying in Marathi-medium schools.
In a bid to arrest a sharp decline in enrolment in Marathi-medium schools run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the civic body is considering introducing an attendance allowance for students, effectively offering a financial incentive to encourage admissions. The proposal comes at a time when enrolment in BMC’s Marathi-medium schools has nearly halved over the past decade, raising concerns about the future of these institutions even as debates over promoting Marathi language education continue in Maharashtra.
According to BMC data, enrolment in its Marathi-medium schools fell from 63,335 students across 368 schools in the academic year 2014–15 to 33,739 students in 2023–24, a drop of almost 50 per cent. During the same period, the number of Marathi-medium schools run by the civic body also declined to 262.
On the sidelines of the first meeting of the newly formed BMC Education Committee on Tuesday, chairperson Rajeshree Shirwadkar said the proposed allowance would serve as an incentive for parents to enrol their children in Marathi-medium schools, where education is already free and students are provided with essential learning materials.
Shirwadkar said, “The particular amount to be paid per student will be decided once we finally get an idea of the lump sum budgetary allocation that can be made under this provision. We do not want to quote one amount per student already to see the possibility of maximum what can be given as an attendance allowance to students taking admission to BMC’s Marathi medium schools.”
The committee’s meeting discussed supplementary demands to the recently announced BMC Education Budget, and a proposal to make a budgetary allocation for an attendance allowance in Marathi-medium schools was among the issues taken up.
The proposal is modelled partly on an existing BMC scheme that provides an attendance allowance for girl students studying in civic schools. Under this initiative, the civic body deposits money as fixed deposit certificates in the names of girl students through the postal department. In 2025–26, fixed deposit certificates ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 were issued based on enrolment for 12,148 girl students from Classes 1 to 8.
According to the current scheme, which is limited to girls studying up to Class 8 in BMC schools, a fixed amount of Rs.5,000 is provided.
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Shirwadkar said the proposed attendance allowance for Marathi-medium schools would be in addition to the existing benefit for girls and would also include boys studying in Marathi-medium schools.
The issue of declining enrolment in Marathi-medium schools also figured prominently during the recently concluded civic election campaign in Mumbai. Marathi Abhyas Kendra, an organisation working for the revitalisation of Marathi-medium schools in Maharashtra, had alleged that the BMC was deliberately shutting down such schools.
Deepak Pawar, head of the Marathi Abhyas Kendra, has written to Shirwadkar seeking clarity on the proposed attendance allowance scheme.
“The BMC’s Education Committee has come into existence after over five years. The committee should swiftly take up important issues to resolve and declining enrolment in the number of Marathi medium schools is one of them. The scheme of attendance allowance cannot be implemented effectively unless appropriate budgetary allocation is made for the same,” the letter states.
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Sushil Shejule, coordinator of the Marathi School Management Association, which supports the Marathi Abhyas Kendra, said details of the proposal remain unclear. “There is still no clarity on what will be the amount as there is no information on the budgetary allocation made in this regard. Until that is finalised, this is just an eyewash.”
Pallavi Smart is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, Mumbai Bureau. Her reporting is singularly focused on the education sector, demonstrating exceptional Expertise and Authority across the entire spectrum of learning, from foundational schooling to advanced higher education. She is a highly Trustworthy source for policy, institutional developments, and systemic issues affecting students, teachers, and parents in Maharashtra.
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