Pune: AAP has accepted State Education Minister Vinod Tawde’s public appeal to discuss the issue of shutting down and merger of Zilla Parishad schools that have less than 10 students.
Tawde, while speaking in Kolhapur, said the State government made the decision to shut and merge schools, and let companies run schools on no-profit no-loss basis in order to provide quality education. So, the State government is ready to discuss the issue.
Mukund Kirdat, RTE and AAP activist, accepted the offer and said, “While the original order was to merge 1,300 schools, AAP brought to notice that the merger was planned without adequate research. The number was reduced to 547 after AAP complained to the the Child Rights Commission. According to the Right to Education (RTE) Act, if the school is not within 1 km of the residence of the child, the student should be provided with transport or hostel facility. After we submitted a letter to the CM, the government has now appealed for a discussion on the issue.”
When AAP activists surveyed a few schools that were to be shut in Pune district, they found that the merit level of these schools was better than the ones they were to be merged with.
“While the AAP government is changing government schools in Delhi for better, why can’t the Maharashtra government do the same. Delhi government schools have increased 8,000 new classrooms and parents are now keen on admitting their children to government schools. This proves that Maharashtra government is just unsuccessful as far as education is concerned,” Kirdat said.
