Students at the transit school; (right) incomplete BMC school building at Bharat Nagar, Bandra. (Vignesh Krishnamoorthy) Students at the transit school; (right) incomplete BMC school building at Bharat Nagar, Bandra. (Vignesh Krishnamoorthy)

In a room that barely measures 7ft by 10ft in a temporary structure in the Bharat Nagar slums of Bandra, at least 50 students sit crammed on the benches neatly arranged in three rows. Each row is reserved for students of a particular class and all are taught at the same time.

The transit school was set up in 2012 to house three schools of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after a school complex in Bharat Nagar was declared unsafe and later demolished in 2011. A total of nine classrooms were made available to the three semi-English schools and the structure was to be used until a new five-storey building was built to replace the school complex.

However, the new building is yet to be completed and for almost five years, teachers of three schools — BKC I, Bharat Nagar II and Bharat Nagar III — have been forced to take multiple classes in one classroom. Classes are also held in the courtyard.

“The teacher first instructs the first row where class III students sit. Then she moves on to the class IV students in the second row. We are the last ones,” said Ayesha, a class V student of the BKC I school. According to teachers, around 1,100 students attend the transit school everyday and there isn’t enough space to accommodate all the classes. “ We have morning as well as afternoon sessions. On an average, 14 classes are held per school. There isn’t any space and we manage by adjusting three classes in the same room,” said one of the teachers from BKC I school.

Teachers said the space constraint had not only impacted teaching but also increased the dropout ratio in the schools as parents were pulling their children out of the schools. “What will the children learn when they are huddled with senior or junior students? How can the teachers concentrate? There are no basic facilities,” said Irshad Khan, a resident of Bharat Nagar who pulled all three of his children from the school.

Local corporator Dilnaz Salim Qureshi and NGO Red Boys Foundation have provided basic infrastructure such as ceiling fans and water tankers for the students. However, without a permanent school structure, teachers said, performance of students was set to suffer.

Meanwhile, the construction of the new building situated a few metres away from the transit school has come to a halt since the past six months. “The first three floors are complete. We are waiting for a commencement certificate (CC) from the MMRDA which is the planning authority of the land,” said Mahesh Palkar, Education Officer, BMC.

Another official from the school infrastructure cell of the BMC told The Indian Express that the MMRDA was owed a premium charge for the construction of the structure above the third floor. “A letter has been sent from the Commissioner’s office to the MMRDA to release the CC at the earliest,” the official said. Officials from the MMRDA, however, did not respond to calls and messages.

priyanka.sahoo@expressindia.com

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