The principal of a budget school from Malad dreads a postman as mail nowadays mostly brings parents’ letters asking for a leaving certificate. At a budget English-medium school in Makhurd, authorities were shocked when a school from Osmanabad called them asking for a student’s leaving certificate. Such calls have now become routine for the schools. There is a similar trend in city municipal schools, too, which are worried about the alarming rate at which students are dropping out.

With the reopening of schools put on hold yet again, worries of survival have increased manifold. Teaching and learning online has not been taking place in full capacity at these schools due to various reasons, the most common being lack of technological support. For budget schools catering to the lower and lower-middle class, their struggle is to ensure survival.