Brihanmumbai The Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday presented its education budget for the financial year 2026-27. This time the total budget has been kept at Rs 4,248.08 crore, which is more than Rs 3,674 crore of last year 2025-26. The special thing was that after four years this budget was presented before the general assembly of elected corporators instead of any administrator. This budget was presented by Dr. Avinash Dhakne, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Eastern Suburbs). The entire education budget has been divided into two parts so that attention can be given to both day-to-day expenses and development of schools. Revenue expenditure of Rs 3,758.08 crore, includes salaries of teachers and staff, maintenance of schools and administrative expenses. Capital expenditure of Rs 490 crore will be spent on construction of new schools and major improvement works of old schools.
What is special in the budget, understand here
Let us tell you that in this budget many big steps have been taken to promote digital education. Under this, tablets will be given to 19,317 students of class 9. Rs 21.83 crore have been kept for this. Astronomy labs will be started in 40 more schools. Rs 11.08 crore have been earmarked for primary and Rs 11.08 crore for secondary category to provide cyber security training to 20,000 students. This training will be done in collaboration with National Forensic Science University.
promotion of art and music
A provision of Rs 1.35 crore has been made to strengthen music education in schools. With this, musical instruments like harmonium, tabla and synthesizer will be purchased. On this occasion, Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani emphasized on the issue of education and rights. He said that good education is the right of every child, not a privilege.
Student safety and facilities
In this budget, special attention has been paid to the safety and facilities of the students. Under this, Rs 42 crore has been kept for installation and maintenance of CCTV cameras in all schools. Rs 5 crore has been given to modernize the school library and provide books for competitive examinations. Students scoring more than 90 percent marks in Class 10 will be given financial assistance of Rs 25,000. Along with this, the free bus travel scheme will continue for students using ‘Chalo Card’, for which there is a provision of Rs 8.70 crore. According to BMC, out of the 72 ongoing school construction and repair works, 57 will be completed by March 2026. This will provide better facilities to the students in the next academic session.
Launch of ‘Mission SAFAL’
Not only this, after the success of last year’s ‘Mission SAMPURN’, now BMC has started ‘Mission SAFAL’. Its full name is Strengths, Activities, Forward Thinking, Ambitious, Learning. This scheme will emphasize on connecting sports, arts and other activities with studies as per the New Education Policy 2020.
