pune there has been only a slight increase in the second batch of students enrolled in the maharashtra state board of open schooling since it started in january 2019the officials however pointed out that the real victory is that 45 children with special needs have enrolled with the board in the second outing as compared to nine last year even so the board is yet to become a household name in rural maharashtrain the first batch which started in january this year there were 79 students enrolled in class v and 175 enrolled in class viii in the second batch the numbers stand at 72 and 216 for class v and viii respectively most number of students who have enrolled are from pune and mumbai the people in the two cities are more aware of the avenues available in education hence parents apply on behalf of their children or even themselves what is a big achievement for us is the rise in the number of students enrolled in the special need category said subhash rathod state coordinator of the boardthe objective of providing an open board was to enrol outofschool students to get them back into formal education one of the target groups was indeed children with special needs who stay out of formal education due to lack of access and other problemshowever the pet project of former school education minister vinod tawde is yet to reach its full potential of getting out of schoolchildren in rural areas into mainstream education one of the reasons said officials is the lack of advertisement in rural areas as well as a lack of funding for making the open board more visible the change in minister said officials has also harmed the standing of the boardthe board doesnt have that kind of visibility in rural areas like zilla parishad or other bodies plus there is no special fund carved out for the open board until the open board stands on its own feet it is the maharashtra state board of secondary and higher secondary educations responsibility to help the open board said an official on condition of anonymitythe termend examinations were held in julyaugust for the first batch as many as 147 students registered for the termend examination eventually 144 students appeared and passed the examination