Chief Minister Eknath Shinde during his virtual dialogue with teachers on the occasion of Teacher’s Day on Monday assured that there will be no shortage of funds for the education sector and also to provide infrastructure in schools. He said he will soon issue an order to the school education department that the salaries of the teachers should be deposited on time in their accounts. Shinde, who was accompanied by school education minister Deepak Kesarkar, said that the government is committed to provide quality education to all children.
According to CM, the government has taken many strategic decisions for the development of schools, especially for the empowerment of government schools. ‘’Efforts have been made to make pre-primary education of international standard. The government as per the new education policy is taking student-centric decisions and it is focusing on spending 6% of gross state domestic product on education, reducing the dropout rate and implementing a proper evaluation process of teachers in the state. A conducive environment is being created through these slew of initiatives,’’ he noted.
As per the annual budget for 2022-23, Maharashtra has allocated 16.3% of its total expenditure for education in the current fiscal which is higher than the average allocation (15.2%) for education by all states (as per 2021-22 Budget Estimates).
Mentioning some notable aspects of the state's education sector, the CM said that the school at Zilla Parishad Sriramtanda in Jalna district has prevented 100 per cent migration and said that the enrollment has increased. He appreciated the teachers for doing numerous innovative experiments that the Zilla Parishad School at Paldoh in Chandrapur district for its functioning for 365 days without any vacation while the
Zilla Parishad School at Toranmal has become an ideal residential school for 1,600 children of 29 hamlets.
In his appeal, Shinde said, ‘’Teachers are the real architects of creating ideal schools and let us be determined to increase the number of such schools and develop the remaining government schools to increase the number of students .’’ He further noted ‘’No technology can replace teachers. The state has a long tradition of goal-oriented and experimental teachers and due to this tradition, the education system has become more prosperous. He called upon the teachers to focus on the removal of shortcomings to address the issue of out-of-school children and also the mid-day meal and other schemes meant for the personal benefits of the students so that their implementation will become more effective.
