Balwadis In Mumbai

Boosting enrollment numbers for Mumbai's municipal schools. Enrollment numbers for class 1 and 2 were a mere 12000 across their 1200 schools and the numbers were worse for the higher grades. While many children were found to be dropping out of school due to financial difficulties, many more were simply switching to private schools because of poor quality teaching and poor school administration.

Although as per government policy, all school education costs, including cost of uniform, books, school fees, school bag and midday meals, were now being borne by the government, parents still preferred to send their children to private schools. It was clear that enrollments had to increase.

Since Balwadis (pre-primary schools in Mumbai city) are considered feeders to enrollments in Grade 1, it was now imperative to improve the existing Balwadis so that on attaining 6 years of age, the Balwadi students would naturally join the local municipal school. At the time, the day-to-day operations of Balwadis had been outsourced to NGOs, teachers’ salaries were low, their minimum qualifications at just 10th standard pass and curriculum varied from centre to centre. In order to offer these young children their best shot at a bright future, better teaching at Balwadis became imperative.

Our Solution

Today, Ampersand Group is a proud partner with the MCGM for the operations and management of Balwadis across Mumbai. With a structured curriculum, phygital (digital and non-digital) learning resources, multilingual content with integrated assessments, use of local materials for teaching aids, enrollments have doubled.

Our Impact

Not just a doubling of enrollments, studies show that these Balwadis students have shown substantial improvement in their language, literacy and communication skills, along with cognitive, sensory and perceptual development.

A strong foundational-level learning environment goes a long way in enabling the school-readiness of young children and the increase by 100% in enrollments is a valid testimony to it.