Maharashtra government stays GR asking for selfies with dropouts

The GR instructed teachers to take selfies with such students; after protests, education minister Vinod Tawde stayed it claiming institutes misunderstood it

Tawde blamed the district level education officials for misinterpreting the concept. File pic

The Maharashtra Government has suspended its instruction to school teachers across the state, to take selfies with dropouts and non-school going children in their neighbourhood, to bring them back to classes.

After teachers protested against the state government selfie initiative, the state Education Minister Vinod Tawde, temporarily put a stay on the Government Resolution, claiming that educational institutes misunderstood it. “We have put a stay on our selfie initiative to figure out the complications faced by the teachers in its execution,” said Tawde.

While speaking to media, Tawde blamed the district level education officials for misinterpreting the concept of GR to schools. “The main concept of GR was for teachers to take selfies with students who do not attend school regularly, but the teachers were instructed by the officials to take selfies with all the students in groups of 10.”

Speaking to mid-day, Teacher’s Union leader Anil Bornar said, “The government should stop all non-teaching activities in civic schools to curb the dropout rate. If school teachers are involved in taking selfies and number of workshops as per GR, then who will teach the students? Ultimately the dropout rate will increase.”

Bornar added, “Last two Mondays, teachers have wasted their lectures time in taking selfies and only 10 per cent were able to complete this task. Moreover, teachers in tribal areas don’t have proper Internet facility, and everyone doesn’t own an android phone. The government should completely eliminate this GR and come up with some another initiative to curb the dropout rate.”

“When it is clear that this GR is not for the benefit of educational institutes and is a waste of time for all teachers, instead of keeping it on hold, the government should have scrapped it,” said Prasant Redji, Secretary of the Principals’ Association.

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