Nagpur: In a worrying sign, the number of students studying in Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) schools are on sharp decline.
This fact has been revealed in information shared by the civic body with activist Abhay Kolarkar under Right to Information (RTI) Act. The schools run by NMC may not adorn modern outlook, but in terms of teaching, it’s almost at par with any private institution in the city. In this background, the decline in students studying and also corresponding reduction of expenditure of NMC is a worrying sign.
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15 May 2025
Till date, about 38 schools have been shut down by NMC due to lack of response from the parents. With the advent of Right to Education, now anyone can aspire to study in big private schools.
The RTI reply further pointed out that in the year 2019-20, there were 157 NMC schools. However, the number got reduced to 131 the next year. The year 2019-20 was the worst as nearly 26 schools were shut down by NMC for various reasons. Thereafter, in the next two years, with good numbers of students, the civic body continued with its strength.
Around 7,141 students were studying in primary and secondary schools in 2019-20, which declined to 7,399 in the year 2020-21 and further, to 5,523 in 2021-22. Even the number of teachers too are now lesser in number, about 698 at end of 2021-22 year, compared to 847 in 2019-20 and it got reduced to 772 in the next financial year. As to expenditure incurred by NMC, it is now over Rs 2.30 crore for year 2021-22, compared to Rs 3.08 crore in the year 2019-20 and Rs 2.52 in the year 2020-21.
In another disturbing information under the RTI, the NMC is using 38 school buildings for other purposes than education. The NMC has also reduced the number of teachers. According to sources, the NMC’s Education Department blamed the fall in the number of students to the Marathi medium education at most NMC schools as nowadays parents from below poverty line too prefer English medium schools. The NMC has converted six Marathi medium schools into English medium schools from 2021-22 academic sessions in different assembly constituencies, sources added.
