The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly was informed on Friday that the state government will launch a special drive from June to review whether schools are complying with the rule making Marathi a compulsory subject from Classes 1 to 10. Schools found violating the norms may face cancellation of recognition, School Education Minister Dada Bhuse said.
Responding to concerns raised by several MLAs during the session, Bhuse said the rule introduced in March 2020 makes Marathi mandatory across all schools in the state, including those affiliated with national and international boards. He added that the requirement applies across media such as Gujarati and Urdu as well.
“The compulsion is across the board and across the mediums. Marathi must be taught compulsorily from Class 1 to 10,” Bhuse said, admitting that some schools affiliated with national and international boards were not following the law. He said such schools would first receive warnings, but continued non-compliance could lead to cancellation of recognition.
The issue was raised during question hour by legislators, including Haroon Khan, Atul Bhatkhalkar and Ameet Deshmukh. Bhatkhalkar urged the government to verify whether international schools had appointed qualified Marathi teachers, while Deshmukh suggested a statewide drive to ensure the subject is taught in all schools.
Bhuse confirmed that the enforcement drive would begin in the new academic year and apply to institutions affiliated with boards such as CBSE, ICSE and International Baccalaureate.
Action against colleges denying women admissions
In a separate reply in the Assembly, Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil said the government would cancel the affiliation of colleges that deny admission under the state’s free professional education scheme for women from backward classes.
The issue was raised after legislators alleged that colleges were refusing admissions due to delays in reimbursement of fees by the government since the scheme was introduced in July 2024. Patil acknowledged that scholarship payments had been delayed but said institutions could not deny admissions on that basis.
He said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had directed authorities to prioritise payments to colleges. “Fee reimbursement will now be treated on the lines of salaries of government employees,” Patil said, adding that inspections had revealed smaller colleges were struggling due to delayed payments, but still could not refuse admissions or force students to pay fees.
According to Patil, the scheme has led to a significant increase in enrolment of women students in professional courses such as engineering and medical programmes. He said the number of women students rose from 85,068 in 2023–24 to around 1.15 lakh, marking a 41 per cent increase.
Bill to regulate private pre-primary institutions
Bhuse also informed the Assembly that the state government is preparing a bill to regulate private pre-primary educational institutions. The proposed legislation will set standards for minimum infrastructure, teacher strength, teacher-student ratio, safety measures and installation of CCTV cameras.
He said registration of such institutions had already been made mandatory since April last year, and around 12,733 pre-primary schools have so far registered with the government.
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