Teach Marathi or lose license: Maharashtra's directive to schools

The state may potentially revoke the recognition of schools found flouting norms regarding the teaching of Marathi, school education minister Dada Bhuse said.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has warned of strict action against schools across mediums and boards that fail to comply with the mandate of teaching Marathi from classes 1 to 10.

According to legislation introduced in March 2020, Marathi is mandatory for students of classes 1 to 10 in all schools in Maharashtra, including those affiliated with national and international boards (HT Archives)

School education minister Dada Bhuse on Friday told the state assembly that the government would undertake a special drive to review the implementation of this rule in schools from June. The state may potentially revoke the recognition of schools found flouting norms regarding the teaching of Marathi, he added.

School education minister Dada Bhuse on Friday told the state assembly that the government would undertake a special drive to review the implementation.

Bhuse was replying to concerns raised by MLAs alleging that some prominent international schools were not teaching Marathi. According to legislation introduced in March 2020, Marathi is mandatory for students of classes 1 to 10 in all schools in Maharashtra, including those affiliated with national and international boards.

“The compulsion is across the boards and across the mediums, including Gujarati and Urdu. They have to teach Marathi compulsorily from class 1 to 10,” said Bhuse. “It is true that some schools with national and international board affiliation are not following the law. They will be given a warning for the stricter implementation of the law. Even after this, if they do not fall in line, their recognition will be cancelled,” he added.

MLAs Haroon Khan, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Ameet Deshmukh and others raised the issue during question hour in the state assembly on Friday. Bhatkhalkar said the government should check whether international schools have recruited qualified Marathi teachers. Deshmukh suggested that the government undertake a drive to ensure that Marathi is compulsorily taught in schools across language mediums.

Bhuse, while responding to these demands, said the government will undertake a special drive in the new academic year to ensure the law is implemented. “And it will be applicable to all boards, including ICSE, IB, CBSE and others,” he said.

Scholarships for women

In reply to another question raised in the assembly, higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil announced that the government would cancel the affiliation of colleges that deny admissions under the state’s free professional education policy for women from backward classes.

This was after MLAs claimed that the state government had not been able to compensate colleges after introducing the free education scheme in July 2024. They said that the dues have mounted and that colleges have not been receiving reimbursements from the government for months, resulting in admissions being denied.

Patil admitted that scholarship payments have been delayed, but said colleges cannot use this as a justification for denying admissions. “After such complaints started mounting, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has directed the administration to pay the fees to the colleges on a priority basis,” he said.

“We have started treating the fee reimbursement on the lines of the salary of government employees. We conducted raids on professional colleges and found that smaller colleges have not been able to sustain the burden due to delayed payments. But this cannot be the reason to deny admissions or force students to pay the fees. If any such complaints are received, we will cancel the recognition of such colleges,” he added.

Patil also claimed that the state government’s free professional education policy for women from backward categories was a success in terms of admissions. “From 85,068 women students enrolled for professional courses like engineering, medical and others in 2023-24, the enrollment went up to 115,000, a rise of 41%,” he said.

Regulating private institutions

Meanwhile, Bhuse said the state government is introducing a bill to regulate private pre-primary educational institutions. “The bill will have provisions for the regulation of various factors, from the minimum areas of operation, number of teachers, teacher-student ratio, safety and security measures, and installation of CCTV, among others. We have already made their registration with the government mandatory since April last year. Around 12,733 such institutions have registered with us,” he said.