Payoshi Bisht, Pune
Almost 10 out of 49 Marathi medium schools operating in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) are on the verge of closing on account of falling enrollment rates among students. The act is being supported by the education board and by the PMC Commissioner Rajendra Bhosale, who stated that a growing number of parents prefer private schools or civic-run English medium schools for their children.
Due to the losses in the number of enrolled students, it has been decided to close the schools that are run via Marathi medium. However, the existing students will follow through with their education in the school which will be merged. Such steps have not been taken for the first time; earlier in 2017, the PMC merged 17 Marathi medium schools, and again, 22 schools were merged in 2019 for the same reason.
The fact about Marathi medium schools is that the enrolments of the schools have reduced due to the parents switching to an English medium school. Most choose to send their children to private schools involved in the Right to Education (RTE) Act which requires that such institutions, set aside 25% of their admissions for poor children. Parents are opting for those English medium schools managed by the civic body as these are believed to provide better education facilities.
Hemant Rasne, the former Chairman of the PMC Standing Committee affirmed that closing these schools has been attributed to the shift of paradigm in the education system brought about by most parents’ preference for their children to attend English medium schools. He informed the audience that the signing up of teachers has also been improved to match the number of students unlike in the past where there were many students managed by only a few teachers.
Rekha Waghmare, a house helper, stated that her child attends Class 5 in a Private institute because regardless of affordability she wants her child to receive a quality education. She said that although schools that were established under the PMC provided free textbooks, uniforms, and school bags the education quality was not up to the mark.
Similar is the case of Ramesh Chavan, who was successful in getting his son admitted to a private school under the RTE Act is happy with his decision as he can witness development in his child like better language skills and imparting self-study capacity.
On the other hand, Sonali Nangade who works as a maid, mentioned that her child was studying in PMC school but she shifted to a non-PMC school. She claimed that she was able to achieve short and constructive communication with the teachers while the environment around her child was enhanced. The decision of the PMC aligns with the new change in perception towards education while at the same time elaborating and illustrating the plight of traditional Marathi medium schools in their struggle to cope with the changing face of education.