Three outfits, fighting for the promotion of Marathi language, have alleged that the BJP government in Maharashtra has been “discriminating” against Marathi-medium schools. Activists, teachers, and managements of such schools had come together on Tuesday to protest against the government for “deliberately” turning a blind eye to the dearth of infrastructure and resources in Marathi-medium schools, which have been witnessing a high-dropout rate lately. The protesters had also demanded that the government publish a white paper on the state of these schools.

Blaming the government’s policies for the ‘rapid’ decline of Marathi schools, the three outfits — Marathi Abhyaas Kendra, Shikshan Hakk Samanvay Samiti and MahaMumbai Shikshan Sanstha Sanghatana — also threatened on Saturday to drag the government to court.

The allegations come ahead of the Maharashtra Day celebrations on May 1. Nand Kumar, principal secretary, School Education Department, however, refuted the allegations. “They are being raised by people with vested interests. The government is putting in sincere efforts for the revival of Marathi-medium schools.”

The reason for decline in the number of Marathi schools was only because the number of students enrolled in them were decreasing, Kumar said. “We have introduced spoken english in Marathi-medium schools in a bid to retain students,” he added.

Maruti Mhatre, who runs a Marathi-medium school in Mumbai’s Vikhroli, said: “On the one hand, they are promoting self-financed English schools. On the other, their (government’s) apathy towards Marathi schools is leading to their closure. The state has been delaying sanctioning of teaching and non-teaching posts for our schools, making it extremely difficult for us to function.”

However, Kumar claimed that nearly 50 per cent of the 10,000 self-financed schools approved were Marathi-medium.

Girish Samant, trustee of the Goregaon-based AB Goregaonkar School, echoed Mhatre. “The education department has been refusing to grant approval to new Marathi-medium schools. Some of these schools have been vying for permissions since 2012.”

The previous Congress-NCP government in the state had formulated a master plan for setting up new Marathi schools by mapping areas where there was a shortage in 2008 following which, the state’s cabinet had decided to permit new Marathi schools in such regions.

But, activists alleged, the current BJP government was not implementing this master plan. “When we seek approvals under the master plan, we are told that it has been scrapped and the government is formulating a new plan. Whilst the BJP was still in Opposition, it had supported our demand vociferously. Now, when it is in power, the same issues remain unsolved,” said Dr Deepak Pawar, convenor of Marathi Abhyas Kendra.

The outfits also claimed that delay in issuing approvals and the lack of grants had forced several schools to shut down. The organisations have demanded making Marathi a compulsory language in state schools, across all boards, while demanding imposition of a cap of the number of English-medium schools.

Meanwhile, Govind Nandede, director of education (primary), said: “We are working on different parametres to set up Marathi schools. They will be released once ready. Besides, under the Pragrat Maharashtra Programme, we have implemented in many schools, over 14,000 students have left private schools to join Marathi schools run by various zilla parishads. Government’s policies are not anti Marathi schools.”

Decline in numbers

Official data revealed that enrollment in English medium schools rose by over 2.65 lakh in 2015-16 compared to 2014-15. For the same period, Marathi schools witnessed a drop of 24,228. Further, a white paper by Praja Foundation on December 2016 revealed that the number of students in BMC-run Marathi medium schools had declined from 1,16,086 in 2011-12 to 71,454 in 2015-16.

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