Knowledge on wheels: BBMP to turn buses into schools

Knowledge on wheels: BBMP to turn buses into schools

The BMTC will modify the scrapped, unused buses before handing them over to BBMP.

With the pandemic resulting in increasing number of school dropouts, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to conduct bridge courses to bring them back into schools. The civic agency will procure 10 buses from the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) to use them as mobile school buses.

Each bus is being procured at a cost of Rs 4 lakh. The BMTC will modify the scrapped, unused buses before handing them over to BBMP. The buses will be equipped with a mat for children to sit, a white board and a chair for the attender. The BBMP will also provide food to these children. Nagendra Nayak. Assistant Commissioner, Education, BBMP, told The New Sunday Express, “These buses are mobile school buses to prepare children to attend classes from the coming academic year.”

He said, “Many children have dropped out and many others have not even been to a school. The mobile buses will act as a confidence-building space. Children will be made to adjust to a school-like atmosphere so that when they go back to school, they do not feel out of place and do not drop out. We will ensure that they catch up with their lessons so that they are able to cope with their peers.”

Knowledge on wheels: BBMP to turn buses into schools
Siberian children made to strip & throw icy water over themselves as part of school curriculum

The BBMP aims to start these services from February, after conducting a survey of identifying the children. It is preparing a report of locations where the number of such children is high, what they are occupied with like begging, hawking and labour sites. Construction sites where most of them are housed with their families are also being listed. The BBMP is also discussing the details with the High Court-formed committees and judges before taking a final decision.

While some have lauded the BBMP’s efforts, others have criticised and said that teaching children in a closed environment, inside a bus, will not be a safe and healthy practice. Activists said that classes are not being held because children should not be allowed to sit in close proximity indoors with others in this pandemic. But the BBMP is doing the same, only making them more vulnerable, they said.

Related Stories

No stories found.
logo
Indians In Gulf
www.indiansingulf.in