PMC's ₹20 Crore E-Learning Dream Is in Shambles as Online Classrooms Go Dark
Pune Municipal Corporation’s ₹20.99 crore e-learning project has collapsed due to failed internet connectivity, leaving digital classrooms in 400+ schools unused. Designed to benefit nearly one lakh underprivileged students, the system now lies idle, drawing public outrage over wasted funds and administrative apathy.
Mrudula Narale
Pune: PMC’s ambitious e-learning project, initiated with a significant outlay of ₹20.99 crore to transform education in PMC schools, has come to a standstill, with digital classrooms lying in disuse and equipment collecting dust. Meant to educate nearly one lakh students from economically weaker sections, the project had envisioned interactive education with the latest technology. But the collapse of the system due to unreliable internet connectivity has touched off broad condemnation, with citizens lamenting the seeming squandering of public funds and administrative indifference.
Rolling out in 2017, the e-learning program initially impacted 265 municipal schools before it was extended to 142 more institutions. The program included subject-specific learning modules, student guidance sessions, and a radio broadcast-style studio to facilitate non-traditional teaching approaches. Classrooms were outfitted with television screens, computers, and educational software designed for different grade levels to promote learning in areas such as science, mathematics, and social studies. The PMC’s education board incorporated e-learning in Vidya Niketan, English-medium schools, sports academies, and music schools, making the project a pillar of its initiatives to modernize education for disadvantaged students.
The initial success of the program was based on internet connectivity, first offered by BSNL and subsequently by Reliance Jio, which declared free internet services for municipal schools across the country. This collaboration facilitated online learning among PMC schools, reaching thousands of children. But during the Covid-19 lockdown, when disruptions hit, gaps within the system were revealed, and PMC was unable to resume connectivity subsequently. The lack of a reliable internet network has made the whole e-learning setup, including the hi-tech studio, redundant. Classrooms that used to ring with digital lessons are now idle, with equipment idle and rusting.
The PMC’s failure to arrange reliable internet services, despite Jio’s countrywide offer, has evoked scathing criticism. Citizens feel that the administration should have given priority to alternative connectivity solutions to keep the program going. The lack of follow-up has raised accusations of negligence, with doubts surfacing about how a project funded by so much money could be given up so lightly. The ₹20.99 crore investment made to improve the level of education is now considered by many to be a wasted opportunity, earning anger from people in Pune who felt they should have had better protection from civic bodies.
Recent assessments of PMC departments, such as municipal schools, have upheld the non-functional status of the e-learning system, but little explanation has been given by officials regarding its failure. Talk of reviving the program during the new academic year has appeared, but the absence of firm plans has done little to ease public exasperation. The fiasco is the antithesis of India’s larger Digital India initiative, which heralds technological revolution in all walks of life. PMC’s inability to ensure even elementary internet connectivity for schools reflects a disturbing failure of administrative intent.
The failure of the e-learning project raises questions of accountability and resource management within the PMC. With stakeholders clamoring for answers, the question on everyone’s mind is whether the civic body can recover this one-time promising project and regain people’s trust in its capacity to deliver on educational reforms. Until then, the quiet digital classrooms are a sobering reminder of lost potential and the steep price of administrative delay.
