Urban News

Indian Express  11.12.2010

8 civic students in hospital after drinking milk provided by school

As many as eight students of Sainath Nagar Municipal School, Ghatkopar, were hospitalised on Friday after they complained of vomiting and stomach pain soon after drinking flavoured milk provided by the school. The students, in the age group of 11-14 years, were admitted to Rajawadi Municipal Hospital. The milk that they drank had been certified by the Belapur Public Health Laboratory and the BMC laboratory in Dadar.

“Though the school reopened on November 22, the milk supply resumed only today. The milk was consumed by 34 students at 9 am. Eight students complained of severe stomach ache and some vomited,” said Deputy Education Officer Mirza Beg. The supplier had attached certificates from the public health laboratory and the BMC lab on the batch of tetrapacks that was brought to the school on Thursday. Milk supply to the school was stopped following Friday’s incident, Beg said.

Hospital authorities said the students were out of danger. Flavoured tetrapack milk is supplied to all civic schools by Warana on a contract of Rs 100 crore for one academic year. Additional Municipal Commissioner in charge of education, MM Adtani, said he had sought a list of city laboratories approved by the Food and Drug Administration. “After we get the list, we will make it compulsory for the supplier to attach certificates from any two of these approved labs and only then will they be allowed to resume supply,” said Adtani.

A BMC team will visit Warana’s manufacturing unit in Kolhapur. “If the milk is not found up to the mark, we will terminate the contract. We cannot jeopardise the health of more than 4 lakh students who study in municipal schools,” said an education official.

Around 200 ml of elaichi-flavoured tetrapacked milk is provided to civic students everyday along with khichadi. There is no regulatory body to monitor the quality of Khichadi served by private suppliers.

Hindustan Times  10.12.2010

Rise in dropout rate in civic schools, says study

The report, released on Thursday at the YB Chavan centre, lists the student, teacher ratios in schools, ward-wise dropout rates and student numbers in every class for a three-year period.  “The data we have collected paints a dismal picture of the corporation’s education department,” said Nitai Mehta, founder-trustee of Praja. “By compiling the white paper, we hope to create awareness about the major issues. We plan to monitor whether the BMC is putting into practice the programmes it has in place to evaluate itself.”

The data show that every year the number of students enrolling in Class 1 goes up but the number of dropouts increases with every higher class. “The big drop in the number of students is from higher primary (Class 7) to secondary school (Class 8 onwards),” said Mehta, founder-trustee of Praja. “Girls tend to drop out because of puberty or because they are given household jobs to do. Boys drop  out as the family feels they need to contribute economically.”

The city has 1162 primary municipal schools up to Class 7 but there are only 42 secondary municipal schools in the city that have Classes 8 to 10. From Class 7 to 8, the number of students falls to approximately one fourth. 

“The problem in Maharashtra is that the municipal schools end at Class 7, whereas the Right To Education Act guarantees education till Class 8,” said Farida Lambay, co-founder of Pratham, at a panel discussion at the report’s release. “Can the state add Class 8 to the primary schools? Otherwise after Class 7 the child has to go elsewhere.”