The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) Mission Admission is turning out to be a successful initiative. In just five days since it was launched, more than 11,500 new admissions are completed in Mumbai Public Schools (MPS).
The BMC Education department launched the Mission Admission initiative this year. Post pandemic, as schools are to resume complete normalcy from the upcoming academic year which will start in June, the education department of BMC decided to focus on increasing the enrollment in MPS. The idea is to also bring children back to schools who may have gone out of the school system, amid pandemic. The team is working with an objective to admit a lakh of students to the MPS, in addition to the existing students’ enrollment.
As per information provided by the civic body, since the Mission Admission was launched on April 18, a total of 11,549 new admissions are done to MPS. These admissions are done in all classes of a total of 1150 schools run by BMC in eight different mediums with state-board curriculum. There are already 3 lakh students studying in these schools. Last year too, BMC had seen an increase in enrollment “indicating how several city parents are preferring MPS over other private schools where fees charged are more than the services provided,” shared an official from the BMC Education department adding that the civic schools’ changing form has helped.
Under the new brand of MPS, the civic schools in Mumbai are changing its skin. The schools are undergoing changes externally which is related to infrastructure but also in the case of offering better quality teaching and other facilities. It is also going to offer a non-state board curriculum in 14 schools. But admissions to those schools will be done separately through an online process.
Under the mission admission program, BMC Education department is focusing on creating awareness through social media with several videos, photos and other content. MPS teachers too are given the tasks to dedicate two hours a day until April end to look for eligible children from nearby areas who are out of school.