Marathi now must in all schools in Maha

The state Assembly on Thursday passed a bill to make Marathi a compulsory language in schools across all boards in Maharashtra, a day after a nod from the legislative

The state Assembly on Thursday passed a bill to make Marathi a compulsory language in schools across all boards in Maharashtra, a day after a nod from the legislative Council. The bill has now become a legislation, Maharashtra Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Marathi Language in Schools Act, 2020, which will be implemented from this academic year, 2020-21.

HT Image

Marathi will now be mandatory in all Central board schools, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council for the Indian schools Certificate Examination (CISCE), International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), International Baccalaureate (IB) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE). Schools that teach Hindi, English and other regional languages will have to include Marathi in its curriculum for students from Class 1 to 10. The violation of the Act will attract a fine of ₹1 lakh. This academic year (2020-21), Marathi will be introduced in Class 1 and 6 and shall be extended to further standards progressively every year. Any student currently studying in Class 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 will not be affected by the Act this year. “In the next five years, Marathi will be made mandatory in all Classes from Class 1 to 10,” said Marathi language minister Subhash Desai.

“The state shall conduct assessment of students for Marathi subject in all schools. There shall be no restriction imposed by the schools on speaking Marathi directly or indirectly. Compulsory teaching and assessment of students for the language will be mandatory for schools that require recognition or no-objection certificate or both from the state government,” states the Act.

The bill has been drafted along the lines of enactments made by southern states namely Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, which have made regional languages compulsory. “The state government will prepare a syllabus for the language for all classes. We recently held a meeting of all education boards, in which their representatives promised full cooperation,” Desai said.

Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis and BJP legislator Sudhir Mungantiwar proposed stringent action against the offenders. “A fine of ₹1 lakh is nothing for many schools where annual fees are in lakhs. Also, there must be action against repeated offenders,” Fadnavis said.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray assured the House that the government will consider it.