Palike may close 7 of its schools for want of students

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is planning to shut down seven of its schools and merging the students and teachers from these schools with the neighbouring corporation schools, due to dwindling student strength.

These seven schools are those at Murphy Town, Bannappa Park, Dayananda Nagar, Pits Colony, Cottonpet, Gandhinagar and Shivajinagar. The schools mentioned have student strength of less than 50.

Prasanna Murthy, Principal, Banappa Park Corporation School, said: “As of now our student strength is very low at 32. It has been going down over the years.”

Hanumantharaju, BBMP education officer, said: “We are looking at merging these schools by next year. The teachers from these seven schools will also be deputed to other schools of the BBMP. A decision on closing the school will only be taken after the approval of the commissioner.”

An official said the proposal to merge the schools was first submitted by N R Ramesh, ruling party leader in the BBMP council. “There was a time when BBMP schools were very popular. Now, however, we are competing with English schools that are gaining in popularity by the day. We will have to discuss the matter in the council before getting the approval of the commissioner,” he said. 
   
The BBMP has as many as 89 nursery schools, 13 primary schools, 33 high schools. Besides, the Palike runs 13 PU colleges and four degree colleges in the City.