Nagpur: The Shinde Fadnavis government will soon recruit 30,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in Maharashtra, announced the school and education minister Deepak Kesarkar in the state assembly on Thursday in his reply to calling attention motion by Amit Deshmukh and others.
The motion was with regard to the agitation by students and teachers against the closure of schools with 20 students or less than that especially in rural areas.
Kesarkar said that schools with 20 students or less than that will not be closed adding that the state government has already done schools with less than 20 students and after that many people believed that such schools will be closed.
‘’However,the survey was aimed to provide a conducive educational environment for the students. The students’ interest are being considered on a priority basis as providing quality education is the government’s priority,’’ he said.
‘’50% recruitment of teachers will be done soon. This process will be completed in the next one month. Let's solve the problem of education of students by giving another chance to the retired teachers. The burden of this will not fall on the Gram Panchayat as the state government will take responsibility for this,’’ he noted.
Kesarkar’s reply is important as Government school teachers have opposed the government's move for the closure of students less than 20 students as they had argued that it was mandatory under the Right to Education Act to have a junior school in 1 km periphery of a village and senior schools in the periphery of 3 km.
Congress MLA Balasaheb Thorat said that under the Right to Education Act, it is his constitutional right to provide education to children between the age of six and 14. He said that due to the survey conducted by the government, there has been a lot of confusion in the state.
“Under the Right to Education Act, even if there is one student, the government has to take responsibility for his education,’’ he added.
However, Kesarkar reiterated that the government has no plan to close down schools with a roll of 0-20 students as the cost is high. ‘’We will make a decision after taking everyone into confidence. The aim of the government is to provide quality education,’’ he noted.
"We will not close any schools. There is an obligation to provide education within one kilometer. No decision has been taken by the government to close schools,’’ said Kesarkar.
