Considering the problem of high dropout rates in civic schools during the crucial eighth and ninth grades, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), along with the Rotary Club of Bombay and students of HR College, has come up with a new pilot project aimed at making sure that students stick to education during and after these crucial years.

While education officers in BMC admit that enrollment in the recent years have been heartening, they also admit as the grades go up and education becomes more complex, they find more and more students dropping out or lagging behind. That is why, Bhavishya-yaan, a programme to help students stick to studies, was started.

Started in February this year, the pilot project of Bhavishya-yaan was kickstarted at the Ambedkar School in Worli. A total of 40 students are hand-picked from these grades and trained in conversational English, computers and other soft skills like etiquette training and confidence building. “8th, 9th and even 10th standard kids are trained. These are the most crucial years to develop their over-all personality. Dropout cases too are rampant in these grades. If kids are left behind in these grades, it will be almost impossible for them to get into a college later. Hence, it was natural to choose students from these grades,” said Rotarian and programme in-charge, Ramesh Narayan.

Besides this, students of the 10th standard are also given a special hardcore training during the holiday season. “We have kept the project running even now for standard 10th students. The idea is to give them a head-start when the school re-opens and they get an upper hand,” said Narayan. “With the programme, we mainly want to ensure that these students do not just fare better but also get into better institutes and make themselves more employable,” added Narayan.

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