BBMP schools, colleges see steady student admissions

As many as 12,500 students have enrolled at BBMP schools and colleges this academic year, notwithstanding the return of a large number of migrant workers to their hometowns.

The educational institutions run by the civic body mainly cater to children of migrant and daily wage workers. The BBMP runs 16 primary schools, 33 high schools and 15 pre-university colleges.

In the 2019-20 academic year, nearly 17,000 students, including those in kindergarten, had enrolled at BBMP educational institutions. Although classes haven’t yet begun this year in view of the pandemic, the number of student enrolments has already reached 12,500. And the BBMP hasn’t yet started kindergarten admissions. A senior BBMP official is certain that if kindergarten admissions are conducted, the total enrolments would easily cross 20,000.

If this promise holds true, it would mean a big leap of faith in the BBMP’s educational institutions. A majority of students at the BBMP’s educational institutions are children of daily wage and migrant workers. But the pandemic has driven a large number of them out of Bengaluru. Still, the BBMP’s institutions have attracted 12,500 students, which is “a good number”, according to an official.

Even the two new institutions started by the BBMP — a high school at Laggere and a PU college at Cleveland Town — have seen good response, the official said. The Laggere school has seen 380 admissions while the college at Cleveland Town has recorded 540 enrolments. “If schools and colleges reopen, we'll get more admissions,” the official added.