CM's intervention offers a ray of hope for 250 Marathi medium educated teachers denied jobs in BMC schools

Siddharth Ingle, founder president Maharashtra Students Union, met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on August 16 regarding the issue

At least 252 young job aspirants, aiming to work as probationary assistant school teachers in primary and secondary civic-run schools in Mumbai, who were allegedly rejected as their primary education was not in English, by the BMC three years ago, now see a ray of hope, after the chief minister's intervention in the matter.

Members of the Maharashtra Students Union (MASU), last week met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde about the matter and he directed civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal to look into it. "These job aspirants, from different parts of the state, had cleared the Maharashtra Teacher Aptitude and Intelligence Test (MahaTAIT), as part of the selection process to fill 12,000 vacancies (at civic/municipal council/zilla parishad schools, etc.). The 252 candidates were among those who had opted for BMC-run schools as their preference," said advocate Siddharth Ingle, founder president of MASU, who led the delegation to meet the CM.

‘BMC against Marathi?'

"The MahaTAIT was conceived to select teachers with appropriate skills for recruitment. But though the 252 passed this test, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) disqualified them in the year 2019, just because their primary education was in either Marathi or another regional medium, and not in English," claimed advocate Ingle.

A candidate based in Kolhapur, said, "Nearly 1.80 lakh candidates applied through the Pavitra Portal for MahaTAIT in 2017 to fill the 12,000 posts. Most of the candidates were looking forward to working in state/civic/zilla parishad schools across the state. In 2019 when finally the results were declared, I was happy to find my name in the merit list and as per my choice, I opted to work in Mumbai for a BMC school. But to our surprise and disbelief, many of us were rejected, as our primary education was in vernacular medium."

"I did my basic education in Marathi medium, but my higher education including my post-graduation and B.Ed was in English medium. However, never had I even dreamt that in Maharashtra, where Marathi is the official language, BMC's education department would use that as a ground for not giving teaching jobs to hundreds of deserving candidates," the candidate said.

‘We want justice'

Another candidate added, "Most of the candidates are from economically weaker sections from outside Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra. And if English medium primary education would have been a mandate, many bright candidates from rural Maharashtra and India, who did their basic education in vernacular languages, would not have been serving the country by cracking UPSC or MPSC examinations. We have lost five years (2017 onwards) and hope justice will be served."

"This is a clear violation of Article 15 of the Constitution of India, which provides equality of opportunity to citizens in public employment. Maharashtra Students' Union (MASU) strongly condemns this discrimination and is striving to get justice to these aspiring teachers. If the need arises, MASU will stage protests against the state government and BMC for justice," said advocate Ingle. Attempts to contact Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Chahal did not yield results.

Assurances given

Ingle claimed that in a meeting with civic chief I S Chahal and Additional Commissioner Ashwini Bhide on August 17, both had assured MASU of looking into the matter. They also said out of the 252 candidates, they had received state approval for 150 primary school candidates. However, for remaining 102 secondary school candidates, they had no information. They assured to inquire into the same and submit their report to the state government. Participants in the meeting were surprised by the reasoning given, as BMC's education department works under its rules and policy. "So why do they need state sanction?" said Ingle.