Mumbai, September 2022: The Don Bosco Development Society (DBDS), Mumbai is running 20 remedial classes for 450 children from the slums of Mumbai under the aegis of MGL Disha Project supported by Mahanagar Gas Limited.

20 part time teachers have been appointed. There are 450 students in these 20 classes. Some students are not regular. The social workers held meetings with parents and teachers in the school. Many of the students in these classes are referred by the BMC school teachers as they are way behind other students and need extra attention from teachers. 25 visits were made by the Project Officer and Social workers to these classes. 10 meetings with parents were held on the progress of children. Following chart shows the number of students from different slum areas who are attending these classes:

Ghatkoper, Sion Koliwada and Antophill are the top three slums areas from where more than 50% of children are attending these classes. There are many children who are attending school for the first time as the schools were closed due to COVID-19 pandemic. According to the evaluation done by our teachers the students of Std I and Std II practically don’t know even the alphabets and numbers.

Nearly half of the students are in Std I, Std II and Std III. There are 5 students who are not enrolled in school. Our team contacted the nearest BMC school to enrol these children.