Marathi likely to be compulsory subject in schools across Maharashtra

State Education Minister Vinod Tawde

The Maharashtra government is mulling over making Marathi compulsory from Std I to X in all schools, Education Minister Vinod Tawde said in the Legislative Council on Tuesday. He said this in response to Shiv Sena MLA Vilas Potnis who pointed that states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala had made their local languages compulsory in schools for all classes.

"The proposal is under consideration," Tawde said. He, however, added that it was a difficult task to make the language compulsory, he later told reporters. It has been a pending request for quite some time now.

Earlier, in February, an NCP leader too had made a similar demand. While Tawde has time and again suggested that he is for the move, the proposal is pending for discussion at the Maharashtra State Board where experts are expected to take an appropriate decision for better implementation of the project.

At present, Marathi language is a compulsory subject in all schools that follow the Maharashtra State Board curriculum, either as a second or third language in English medium schools. It is an optional subject in schools following the CBSE, ICSE and IGCSE curriculum.

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