Mumbai: Fix our education infra first, Kerala model can wait, says Educationists

The education minister had said the state also plans to follow good education initiatives of Punjab and Rajasthan. Representation pic

Fix what is already there, Kerala model can wait." This is the message from activists and educationists to School Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar, who last month announced the plan to implement the ‘Kerala education model' in Maharashtra.

Sushil Shejule, coordinator of Marathi Shala Sansthachalak Sangh, said, "We welcome the government's initiative to study better and more successful school education patterns of other states. However, there are priorities at home that need urgent attention, and the number one priority is filling up vacant posts for teachers. There are numerous vacancies across the state."

"Unless we have trained teachers and good infrastructure, any new model or policy is bound to fail. A robust system needs to be set up to implement the existing policies and schemes first, before introducing a new system," he said, adding, "There is an urgent need for a survey to find out how many areas in the state need schools. Even today, there are many regions where students have to travel long distances to reach schools."

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Among the many policies Kesarkar wants to emulate is one about giving emphasis to education in the mother tongue. A principal of a school in south Mumbai said, "The state government is talking about teaching in mother tongue when many Marathi-medium institutions are on the verge of collapsing. The education department is not approving new Marathi-medium schools. For over a decade, the management and staff of Marathi-medium schools have been struggling and closure of these schools does not appear to concern them [the government] much."

"On one hand, the government is waiting for Marathi-medium schools to shut down. On the other hand, it hails other states for preserving their schools imparting education in their mother tongue," the principal added.

The plan

Maharashtra's school education department plans to implement a number of practices from Kerala, including administering exams on a regular basis, providing remedial coaching to students who are struggling, testing them again, upgrading the curriculum every 10 years and emphasising teaching in the mother tongue.

According to senior officials from the education department, Kesarkar is keen on studying some of the best practices and models implemented successfully in other states and implementing them here.

"We are working on implementing more student-focussed reforms and improving the school education model by adopting best practices in other states," said an official.

Besides, the government is also planning to bring pre-primary education - anganwadis - under the purview of the school education department. Late last month, Kesarkar said Maharashtra would adopt the Kerala model and also follow good initiatives of Punjab and Rajasthan in the education sector.

"I have visited Kerala, which has been at the forefront in the education sector and the experiments that they have conducted are quite successful. We neglect sports and extracurricular activities as the major focus is laid on education alone," he had said.