The BMC education committee on Tuesday approved a proposal to start its first ICSE and CBSE affiliated English medium schools from the upcoming academic year on an experimental basis. While Wollen Mill Municipal School will teach the ICSE curriculum, the CBSE school will be set up at Poonam Nagar in Jogeshwari East. At the Tuesday meeting, presided over by committee chairperson Anjali Naik, a proposal to start 15 more English medium schools in the city, offering classes I to X, was also cleared. At present, BMC has 68 English medium schools offering classes from I to X. Fifteen more schools will now be added to the list. “The proposal was made based on demands by corporators and parents in various areas,” said BMC education officer Mahesh Palkar. The CBSE and ICSE schools will offer classes like junior and senior KG as well as classes I to VI from the upcoming academic year. If classes VII to X will be introduced either gradually or at once with others is yet to be decided, the proposal said. “While the CBSE school will come up in a new building constructed for the purpose, the ICSE school is being set up in a school, whose students had been merged with another school given its minimal strength,” said Palkar. No admission fee will be charged by the two schools, where students will be admitted through a lottery. The funds needed by these schools will be borne from the education department’s budget for 2020-21. Teachers would undergo training before school session begins. “Recognising the need of the hour and to keep pace with the competitive environment of education, the proposal to start these schools was mooted by the Yuva Sena in the September 13, 2019, meeting of the education committee,” said BMC education committee member Sainath Durge. “This is a huge win for the city’s education system run by the BMC. Quality education, a silent revolution that’s underway in BMC schools,” Yuva Sena chief and Minister Aaditya Thackeray tweeted on Tuesday. At present, out of 12,183 sanctioned posts for teachers in BMC schools, 4,017 posts are vacant. Of these, 3,152 posts are for regional language schools. Some of these posts will be converted for English schools and teachers will be recruited accordingly.
