State to grant partial aid to over 1,600 schools

MUMBAI: A day before the academic year for schools across the state begin, the state cabinet, in a move which will help over 1, 600 schools across the state, said

MUMBAI: A day before the academic year for schools across the state begin, the state cabinet, in a move which will help over 1, 600 schools across the state, said that it was going t o of f er 20 per cent of aid money to schools which were categorised as ‘ permanently unaided’.

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This comes after an intense campaign by the management of such schools and its teachers, petitioning the state government repeatedly to delete the words ‘permanently unaided’ in t heir classification. Ceding to their demand, the cabinet approved the move to fund up to 20 per cent of their expenses as aid.

In response to the campaign, the government had decided to assess the state of these permanently unaided schools, following which it decided upon a total of 1,627 schools which were found to be eligible for the grant. This move will now benefit a total of 19,247 teachers whose salaries and payments will now be supported by the grant. The decision is likely to burden the cashstrapped state government by over Rs163 crore annually.

“We had promised in the last assembly session that we will take a decision on this issue and i mplement it f rom the coming academic year. The protests leading up to the decision were political in nature and some legislators tried to score brownie points on the issue,” said State education minister Vinod Tawde.