Mumbai: The Mumbai Municipal Corporation is going to give a gift of Tab to school children before the upcoming elections. This gift will be given to the children before the end of the academic year. The Education Department of BMC has decided to buy 19,401 tabs for students studying ,, Urdu and Marathi and English medium studying in class 10. The proposal to distribute tabs to the students was passed in the BMC Standing Committee meeting. BMC will spend Rs 19,959 on the purchase of a single tab.
BMC has been giving tabs to the students studying in BMC schools since 2015. In 2015, the cost of the tab purchased from BMC was only Rs 6850. The price of tabs this year has been kept several times higher than the ones bought in 2015. To buy the tab, BMC has roped in Eduspark International Pvt. Ltd. The contract has been awarded to TAB.
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Tab feature not mentioned
The information about what is special about the tab that BMC is going to give to the students has not been given in the proposal. Like the screen size of the tab, battery life, RAM, memory, internet facility, software version, learning software etc. is not mentioned. The BJP opposed this saying that the quality of the tab, its technical characteristics and the information about the tab company should be made available to the standing committee as well as the entire house.
BJP questions the price of the tab
The BJP has also raised questions on the cost of the tab. BJP standing committee member Bhalchandra Shirsat said that the price of the tab is also very high so there is a possibility of scam in it. The quality of the tab and the amount payable for the same is more than the market price. Therefore it should be investigated. He said that a number of problems and technical errors have come to the fore in the tab being used at present. From 2015 till now, many teachers had complained about low battery life in the given tab. The teachers also said that it was difficult for all the children to charge the tab as they had to be kept in the school. There were also cases where several children removed educational material from the tab’s memory. This has raised questions on the security of the educational material in the tab.
Tabs will be available next month
The tab given to the students will be made available in March 2022. It is only at the end of the academic year that class X students will have time to use tabs. This situation has arisen due to delay in float tender for the tab due to covid.
Smells of scam buying tabs. The tab is being bought at a price three times more than the tab bought in 1015. When the children needed tabs for studies at the time of COVID, the tabs were not given. The tab is being given when the board exam is approaching. BJP members were not even allowed to speak on this proposal. Our demand is that students should get quality tabs. Education department is working without planning.
-Bhalchandra Shirsat, Spokesperson, BJP BMC
The year | tab price | total expense |
2015 | 6850 | 15.6 crore |
2017 | 10,000 | 7.8 crore |
2022 | 19,959 | 39 crore |