PUNE: To protest against the government’s alleged indifference towards grievances of the private schools and its anti-institute policies, around 35,000 private aided and unaided schools across Maharashtra will remain shut on Friday. The protest has been convened by the Maharashtra Rajya Shikshan Sanstha Mahamandal (Maharashtra state educational institutes corporation), backed by the Independent English Schools Association (IESA). The associations have appealed to the schools to remain shut for the success of the protest.
“Our demands have been pending for a long time now, and we are fed up of the government turning a deaf ear towards them. This protest will force them to pay attention towards us,” RP Joshi, Mahamandal secretary, said.
One of the major issues is of recruitment of the teaching and non-teaching staff.
Ashok Murkute, Executive Committee member, said, “In many private-aided schools, some of the older teachers have retired, and there is a need to recruit new ones. However, we cannot do that. The Pavitra portal has been introduced, but no recruitments have been made yet. Even if the schools appoint teachers on their own, they do not get recognition from the government due to which they have to be paid salaries equivalent to those of the other recognised teachers by the educational institutes.”
He also said that while the government is pushing for Swachh Bharat, it is also not allowing the recruitment of peons or any other non-teaching staff in the schools, which is making it difficult to get people for maintenance and housekeeping work.
“Also, the grant that we received for the non-teaching staff is very low, and we face many difficulties in getting it. We want that to be reviewed. The government also asks for unnecessary information from the schools that adds to the workload of the teachers and other staff of the schools, thus distracting our teachers from their main job of teaching. That needs to change. Also, we have been trying to meet the Chief Minister for a long time, but our requests have not yet been paid heed to,” Murkute said.
Murkute has added that if the government does not pay attention to this protest, the schools will give notice to the government, and close the schools indefinitely until the demands are met.
