An Evaluation Of The Status Of Infrastructure And Educational Facilities In The Municipal Schools Of The Mumbai Region Using The Undps Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (Mpi) Approach

Abstract

This electronic document is a “live” template and already defines the components of your paper [title, text,  heads, etc.] in its style sheet. One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world quoted Malala  Yousafzai. And to facilitate this, all one needs is a school. Today, the role of the school from being just a four  walled structure has enlarged to accommodate a larger perspective which includes a myriad of activities  encompassing the overall development of the child. Apart from basic education, a host of pre-requisites have  become the norm – be it the plethora of activities related to sports, or activities related to the development of  the creative genius, or activities intending to develop the overall personality including Emotional Quotient and  the Intellectual Quotient of the child. Education today, albeit, does concentrate on teaching and learning  nevertheless, the focus and the selling point has now shifted to the availability of facilities. Thus, with the array  of schools today, showcasing their infrastructure and facilities in our visible universe, the choices for a parent  to enroll their young minds are superfluous. There are schools which are of international stature and those who  are not international, aspire to be one. Then come the residuals - the municipal run schools, often alleged to be  overlooked by both the enrollers and the facilitators. And yet they have an audience - the marginals for whom  education is a virtue and getting it completed in the limited available options is an obligation. Often symbolized  as a place for education for those with limited financial viabilities, do these institutions necessarily mirror  poverty and insignificance? Are these schools sustainable and guarantee the development of the child to  compete in the ever challenging environ of today’s world? Do they have the infrastructure facilities which can  bring out holistic development of the child? We put this to test by examining these schools run by the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai, where several schools were visited  and examined under various indicators such as Classroom Infrastructure, Teaching Infrastructure and other  collaterals for a school. To do this differently we used Oxford and UNDPs (United Nations Development  Programme) Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index approach - a concept used in Macro Economic Analysis to  calculate the Poverty Index and Depravation of households in a country. We remodeled this economic concept  to calculate the depravation index of these BMC run schools in the Mumbai region. The results obtained - though not startling yet reaffirming, indicated that most of these schools can be classified as less deprived  withstanding the fact that they do provide what they set out to do - that is basic education.