TED NewsDesk, Mumbai: Following up on its June communique, the state government has made Marathi a compulsory subject in schools throughout Maharashtra. The state school education and sports department informed on Wednesday that a drafting committee is formed to determine the execution of The Maharashtra Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Marathi Language in Schools Act, 2020.
After the Act is brought into action, Marathi will become a compulsory language in all government and private schools across Maharashtra. The law is mandatory for all the mediums of teaching from the first grade to the tenth.
The department of education and sports set up a committee comprising of eight members which will be lead by Dinkar Patil, the Director of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). The department set up the committee following Section 16 (1) of the Act that came into being in the April of this year.
The committee comprises of members like the Maharashtra State Board Secretary Ashok Bhosale, Deputy Secretary (School Education) Rajendra Pawar, SCERT coordinating officer Vikar Garad, Marathi language department deputy head Jagram Bhatkar, Balbharti superior officer Rajiv Patole, Additional Secretary (Marathi Language) Nanda Raut and SCERT deputy head Varsharan Bhopale.
Various schools boards across the state have doubted the unquestioned implementation of Marathi, stating an increase in the workload of students who already are struggling. This problem arose due to a difference in the syllabi of the different school boards.
Hopefully, the government consults the concerned parties before taking a final decision on the imposition of the language and acts accordingly. The education imparted should benefit everyone concerned and not only focus on a select few. Once the grievances of the students are addressed, there is no point following a system redundant to the students’ current needs. It remains to be seen how the government implements the three language policy in its schools across the state.