Cash-strapped MCD schools turn crisis into learning lesson for students

Explaining how the school found a way to tackle the shortage of items, a teacher of Class V said, “We divided a class of 40 into groups of 10 and each group was asked to make a first aid kit. We took the best items from the various projects and put together the school’s first aid box.”

For over two years, nearly 400 schools under the MCD — all schools under the East Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and several under the North corporation — have not received the Rs 24,000 annual contingency fund that they need to buy items like chalk and attendance registers. They are also waiting for the amount of Rs 46 per student, earmarked for holding parent-teacher meetings, organising sports events and other activities.

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“We haven’t got any money for either fund in the last three years. I have even spent money from my own pocket to run the school,” said the Seelampur school principal.

Some teachers said the fund crisis was so acute, they didn’t even have money to buy chalk. A teacher from a school in Ashok Nagar said she was being forced to use last year’s attendance register this year as the school didn’t have money to buy new ones.

Former EDMC mayor Harsh Deep Malhotra blamed the Delhi government for the crisis. “We don’t even have money to pay salaries of employees. How do they expect us to organise funds for other things,” said Malhotra.

He said he had advised principals to directly seek help from the education department in case of emergencies. In dire situations, principals also had the choice of diverting money from other funds, he said.

Another MCD school in Shahdara South adopted a somewhat similar method last year to celebrate Diwali despite the fund crunch. It gave students an assignment: put up decorations for the festival and earn marks for that. A teacher said the shortage of funds also affected the students’ participation in sports competitions and science fairs. “We don’t even have money to run the school, how can we spend money to take students to such events,” she said.

(Nikhil M Babu is an intern with The Indian Express)

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