Mira-Bhayandar civic school enrolment nearly halves in a year, to 5,042

A startling figure has raised questions about the working of the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation's education department. The number of students in civic-run schools, which had been rising steadily for years, has suddenly fallen by nearly half, exposing gaps in the administration's record-keeping. The count stood at 9,613 in 2025-26 but has dropped to just 5,042 so far in 2026-27, meaning 4,571 student entries have vanished at a stroke. The scale of the fall has raised questions about the civic administration's planning.

Enrolment had been rising for three straight years before this. Civic schools recorded 8,942 students in 2023-24, 9,454 in 2024-25 and 9,613 in 2025-26. But in the new academic year, the number dropped straight to 5,042. A fall of nearly 47.5 percent in a single year has raised the question of whether this is a mere technical glitch or a failure of planning by the education department.

Where have so many students gone? The civic administration has blamed the fall on Aadhaar card uploads and online entry on U-DISE. The education department claims that U-DISE currently shows only those students whose Aadhaar cards have been uploaded. According to the department, some students are missing from the online record, while others are not present in school because they have moved to their villages.

But this explanation is only adding to the administration's troubles. If students' Aadhaar entries have not been completed even after the academic year has begun, who is responsible for that? And if the education department itself does not have accurate information on how many students are actually studying in civic schools, on what basis is educational planning worth crores of rupees being carried out?

According to the education department, the final enrolment figure will be decided only after September 30, so the current figure of 5,042 cannot be treated as final. But the question is this: if 9,613 students had already been enrolled by July last year, how did the number fall to less than half during the same period this year? If students are in fact attending school, why is the administration taking so long to put their names, Aadhaar numbers and academic records online? Parents have begun to discuss whether the excuse of "Aadhaar not uploaded" is being used to hide negligence across the entire system.

The Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation spends crores of rupees on its education department every year. Students are given free study material, claims are made of improving school facilities, and the administration speaks of implementing a policy for quality education. But if accurate, timely online records of how many students are actually in these schools are not even available, then it is time to audit the performance of the entire system.

There is now a demand that the civic administration, instead of offering a general clarification, make public separate figures for last year and this year for each school, the number of Aadhaar uploads, a separate count of online and offline students, and the number of students actually present. The drop from 9,613 straight to 5,042 is not a minor technical discrepancy but a question involving 4,571 students. The education department will have to tell the city whether these students are actually in school or have gone missing somewhere in the registration process.

The administration cannot escape its responsibility by hoping the enrolment figure will rise by the end of September. If the number does rise, the question will be where these students were until now, and if it does not, the administration will have to answer why thousands of students have turned away from civic schools.