Decline of Marathi medium schools in Mumbai worries MLAs

Mumbai, July 24 (UNI) Asserting that it was not promoting English language at the cost of Marathi in school education, the Maharashtra Government today told the Legislative Assembly that it was taking steps to improve the quality of English language education in marathi-medium schools.

Replying to a discussion on the poor standards of marathi medium schools in the state, Minister of state for school education, Hassan Mushrif admitted that there was a growing trend among parents from all sections of society in large cities like Mumbai, Pune to give their wards an english medium education for better career prospects later.

''It is upto the parents to take a decision that they will send their kids to marathi medium schools. Given the fact that english education is equally important to shape the lives of children, the Government will take steps to improve the quality of english language education in marathi medium schools so that the children do not leave their school to opt for english medium ones,''the Minister said responding to the concern of the legislators over the decline of marathi medium schools in the state, especially Mumbai.

Replying to questions, Mr Mushrif said there were 571 english medium and 490 marathi medium schools in Mumbai. As many as 15 marathi medium schools have closed down. But, he said elsewhere in the state there were 14,534 marathi medium and 818 english medium schools in 2005 and 14,628 marathi and 865 english medium schools this year.

Gajanan Kirtikar and Subhash Desai (Shiv Sena) pointed out that convent schools in Mumbai were forcing children to read the Bible and were punishing them if their parents objected. Annie Shekhar (Congress) strongly objected to the remarks stating that such a practice does not exist in convent schools. Mr Mushrif said if the members had specific complaints, they should provide details to the Government.

''If force is used, action would be taken against the schools,'' he asserted.

When members pointed out the poor quality of education in marathi medium schools, the Minister informed that the government had conducted a survey which found that 8.31 lakh students of standard seven cannot read and write or even write their names.

''The teachers and parents opposed steps introduced to improve the quality of education. But, we will consult them again and take a decision to improve the quality of education,'' he added.

CBSE and ISCE schools have informed the Government that they will introduce marathi as the compulsory third language in their curriculam from the present academic year, he said when responding to queries whether the CBSE and ISCE schools have implemented the Government's decision to make Marathi a compulsory subject in their syllabus.

UNI