Mumbai, February 29: The Maharashtra government has threatened to revoke the recognition of the schools that don't teach Marathi. In a government resolution (GR) released on Wednesday, the state has demanded strict implementation of its 2020 notification making the Marathi language a compulsory subject for schools across the board. The government was prompted to issue the directive after it found many schools weren't complying.
The decision to have Marathi as a compulsory subject from classes 1-10 in all schools, including those affiliated to CBSE, ICSE, IB and IGCSE boards, was taken in 2020 by then Maha Vikas Aghadi government. The rule was to be implemented in phases, involving two classes each year; classes 1-6 in the academic year 2020-21, classes 2 and 7 in 2021-22 and so forth.
However, the decision couldn't be executed effectively due to the Covid outbreak. As a result, the government last year gave a one-time relaxation to the non-state board schools in evaluation of the subject for a single batch of students. While these institutions still had to teach the language to all the classes, the students who were in class 8 in 2022-23 were to be awarded grades in place of marks for their performance in the subject for the remainder of their three school years. These grades - A, B, C and D - aren't included in the final results.
Schools Weren't Complying:
However, the government found that some of the schools misread this relaxation in the assessment method and failed to teach the language sincerely. The schools have now been reminded of a provision in the 2020 notification that provides for revoking the schools' approval and no-objection certificates if they didn't implement the mandatory Marathi policy.
They have now been directed to submit details of their evaluation of students' performance in Marathi to the school education department. The divisional deputy directors of education have also been asked to probe the schools 'misusing' the one-time exemption given to a single batch of students.
