The Congress-NCP coalition government in Maharashtra, which is not only riven with dissension about seat-sharing in the state legislative elections scheduled for October 13 but is also confronted with an incumbency wave, is hell-bent on playing the Marathi language card to win electoral dividends. On August 7 it announced a 20-point programme to regulate the state’s 86,400 primary-secondary (including CBSE and CISCE) schools.
Under the 20-point charter — which is certain to be challenged in court by private schools — all schools will be obliged to adopt the syllabus of the state government’s secondary school certificate (SSC) board for classes I-V: compulsorily teach Marathi as a second language; make “any information” available to the state government; pay teachers and staff salaries prescribed by the state government; and include a government official on staff selection panels of all private schools.
Now seizing upon the Union government’s proposal to promote 6,000 model schools countrywide on the template of Central government sponsored 981 Kendriya Vidyalayas, for which provision of Rs.12,750 crore has been made in the Eleventh Plan, the Maharashtra education minister, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil announced on September 13 that the medium of instruction in the 130 model schools to be established in the state will be Marathi.
Although prompted on the eve of assembly elections by parochial populism, there’s a strong possibility of the proposal hurting rather than improving the Congress-NCP govern-ment’s electoral prospects. Data collated by the Delhi-based National University of Educational Planning and Administration indicates that aggregate student enrolment in Marathi-medium schools has declined from 11.9 million in 2006 to 11.7 million in 2008. On the other hand enrolment in English-medium schools has risen from 1.19 million to 1.50 million during the same period.
The flight from (free of charge) government-run Marathi medium schools to fees-charging English medium schools is more evident in Mumbai. Compared to the 4.31 lakh students in Marathi-medium schools currently, more than 5.57 lakh children study in the city’s English medium schools.
The decision of the Maharashtra government to impose Marathi as the medium of instruction in the proposed model schools has created shock waves within the parent, teacher and student communities. Even Union human resources minister Kapil Sibal was moved to comment: “What language a school should teach must be decided by parent and child; that cannot be decided by a government diktat.”
Adds Dr. Omkar Patki, professor of management at Jaihind College: “I fail to understand the state government and its dictatorial agendas. It seems hell-bent on producing under-confident students who once in the real world will crumble under pressure. Without proper training in English which respected company will hire them? If the state government’s myopic policies are implemented in model schools, the future of students would be very bleak indeed.”
It is pertinent to note this is hardly the first or second time that Vikhe-Patil, a leader of the Congress party, is infusing vote-bank politics into education matters. Earlier this year he proposed that 90 percent of seats in junior colleges (classes XI-XII) in Maharashtra should be reserved for students completing the class X exam of the state’s SSC examination board. And in 2008 he had proposed admissions into junior colleges based on a percentile rather than marks formula. Both these proposals targeting “elite” CBSE and CISCE schools in the state were struck down by the Bombay high court.
But some people never seem to learn.
Neha Ghosh (Mumbai)