Nagpur: The Legislative Council was on Thursday thrown into turmoil as Opposition lambasted the Fadnavis Government for its decision to shut down 1316 non-performing schools across the state. Amid the pandemonium the House was adjourned twice. “The decision by the Education Department was made to benefit private schools,” the Opposition members charged.
It is pertinent to recall that the State Education Minister Vinod Tawde the other day had announced that the Maharashtra Government has decided to shut down over 1,300 non-performing schools across the state. The 1,316 schools would only be closed after their students and teachers are transferred to other nearby schools. The School Education Department has identified 4,353 government schools and 69 private schools which have less than 10 students enrolled in them.
The schools under the state with 0 to 10 students are going to be shut, because admissions to these schools have reduced as parents have withdrawn admissions over “poor quality of education”.
However, the Opposition parties contested the claim and said that the decision has put the students in lot of trouble. The students will have to cover long distances for going to other schools. But the government has turned the blind eye towards the hardship of students and decided to shut down the schools only to benefit private schools. The Opposition Leader Dhananjay Munde said that the government is adopting wrongful policies in education. This is injustice to students as well as teachers.
The Education Minister Vinod Tawde said that no teacher will lose a job and no student will be deprived of school education. The students and teachers from these 1,316 schools will be shifted to schools with good grades, where the performance of students is good. The Congress Government too had closed down 20,000 schools. But this government has only shut down schools with low enrollment figures.
MLA Kapil Patil, who is also a teacher, said that the government is bundling out the schools only to extend benefits to private schools. Night schools too have been shut down by this government. With this latest decision, teachers in thousands have been left jobless and no salaries are being paid to them. I have not seen such a liar government. Under the Right to Education, no student could be deprived of education. The schools that are being closed down are in adivasi and interior areas. Government wants to deprive these people of education, Patil charged.
