1,600 schools stuck without approval; warning issued salaries won’t be disbursed

School education department directs officials to expedite pending approval process as nearly 1,600 schools remain without final sanction owing to incomplete data entries

PUNE: The school education department on March 18 directed officials across Maharashtra to expedite the pending approval process for the academic year 2025-26 as nearly 1,600 schools remain without final sanction/s owing to incomplete data entries.

School education department directs officials to expedite pending approval process as nearly 1,600 schools remain without final sanction owing to incomplete data entries. ((PIC FOR REPRESENTATION))

According to the directive issued by Mahesh Palkar, director of secondary and higher secondary education, the delays have been caused by missing information in the system at various administrative levels such as school, cluster, and district logins. Key details such as student enrolment, sanctioned posts, medium of instruction, grant type, class, and division have not been properly updated. Officials including divisional deputy directors of education and education officers (primary and secondary) have been instructed to carry out adjustment of surplus teaching and non-teaching staff as per the government resolution (GR) for 2025-26.

In cases where the approval process has not been completed due to technical or data-related issues, authorities have been permitted to temporarily consider the 2024-25 approval data, provided there is no decrease in student strength. Based on this, immediate action must be taken to complete staff adjustments. Furthermore, the department has warned that if approvals for 2025-26 are not finalised, salaries and allowances exceeding sanctioned posts will not be disbursed through the official system.

Palkar said, “Instructions regarding staff adjustment as per the 2025-26 approved structure have already been issued. All concerned authorities must complete the pending approval process on priority. In cases where approval has not been granted due to incomplete data, last year’s (2024–25) approved structure may be considered temporarily, provided there is no reduction in student strength. It must also be noted that salaries and allowances beyond sanctioned posts will not be disbursed if approvals remain pending.”