India, Aug. 11 -- Nearly a month after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) declared two buildings of the Mumbai Public School in Colaba unsafe and moved 1,500 English-medium students to online classes, the experiment is collapsing. Families say the lack of devices, poor internet connectivity and absence of a structured routine have left hundreds of children without access to education - with many simply dropping out.

The school at A M Sawant Marg was shut on July 15 after the BMC's School Infrastructure Cell (SIC) categorised one building as C1 (dilapidated) and ordered the demolition of both structures. While students from Marathi, Hindi, Kannada and Urdu sections were shifted to other municipal schools, there was no physical r...