‘Will protest move against night schools’

The recent indication by the school education secretary to shut down night schools and provide distance learning to those attending night school facilities has been opposed by a teacher’s organisation, Shikshak Bharati.

The organisation said instead of shutting down functional night schools in the metropolitan cities, the government should start building more in smaller districts and villages. They have also threatened to start an agitation along with the Principals’ Association, if the government insists on the proposition.

Ashok Belsare, chairman of the Shikshak Bharati said, “The recently announced board exam results show that the students studying in the night schools have performed extremely well. In such a situation the indication of replacing night schools with distance learning comes as a surprise. There are around 30,000 students who study in the 182 secondary and higher secondary schools across the state. Mumbai alone has 139 such schools, hence shutting them down will have a debilitating impact on the students who study there.”

He pointed out that last year in November when the education minister had proposed this new education system, wherein night schools would be abolished and distance learning would be introduced, MLC Kapil Patil had taken up the issue with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. However, the CM has assured that the proposal would be scrapped and a new one would be brought in its place. But in what seems like a repetition of the clauses of the proposed system, the academic fraternity has been astonished, including Belsare. To discuss the course of action, Shikshak Bharati and the Principals’ Organisation have planned a meeting on June 13.