State to launch cluster schools scheme; teachers say 15K institutions to be closed

Mumbai: In a bid to improve education in government schools, the state will launch a new scheme of clusters of schools, wherein smaller institutions will be merged with bigger schools in the vicinity. The detailed action plan declared by the state education commissioner on Friday has caused major unrest because it indicates the closure of around 15,000 schools.

The development came recently after a meeting with deputy chief minister and finance minister Devendra Fadnavis.

In July, the state government came up with a school closure plan across the state. After agitations, the government withdrew the decision. “Now with this new packaging, the government came up with the school proposal, which affects more than 1.85 lakh students across the state,” Mahendra Ganpule, spokesperson, Maharashtra Principal Association, said. Highlighting the role of visionaries in the state who are trying to provide education to all classes of society by opening schools in tribal areas and small villages in the state, Ganpule added that the government is revoking the right to education from the students. “With this decision, we fear that many students will be out of school and the education system in progressive states like Maharashtra will be negatively impacted,” he said.

About 1.10 lakh schools are run in the state through various managements, of which about 65,000 are run by local bodies. On the action plan, education commissioner Suraj Mandhare said, “The government is committed to providing quality education and ensuring that every child in the state stays in the education stream till the end. Taking into consideration these aspects for the educational quality of children and with the aim of providing adequate educational facilities to each child, the government decided to start the process of clustering schools, especially those with low enrollment, in accordance with the points discussed in a meeting chaired by the deputy chief minister (finance).”

The state government runs a pilot project of cluster schools in Samu schools at Toranmal in Nandurbar and Panshet in Pune districts. Kishor Darak, an educationist, said, “The so-called school complex or cluster will undoubtedly lead to the closure of thousands of schools. It seems to be a blueprint for pushing Maharashtra at least 50 years back and paving the way for generations of non-literates. Though debatable, section 7.9 of the NEP 2020 clearly says that ‘plans developed by school management committees will become the basis for the creation of a school complex or cluster development plan’. By simply issuing orders, authorities in the state have shown gross disrespect for the Right to Education (RTE) and NEP. The decision should be withdrawn immediately and unconditionally.”

Taking Darak’s point forward, Jalindar Sarode, chief executive of Shikshak Bharti, pointed out that in 1968, the Kothari Commission had suggested implementing the School Complex Scheme. This plan failed. “The school complex scheme is once again included in the NEP. Due to this, 15,000 government schools in the state will be closed in the first phase. All Zilla Parishad schools within a radius of about 20 kilometres will be closed, and only one school will continue. This is a violation of the RTE Act,” Sarode said. “We will strongly oppose this decision and force the government to reverse this decision. If the government does not listen, we will start a street fight.”

Meanwhile, Madhare said that the purpose of creating cluster schools is not for the state government to close down schools or reduce the number of teachers. The main objective, he said, is to provide adequate educational facilities to students from the perspective of quality and give them scope to develop various studying abilities.