The state cabinet on Tuesday gave “in-principal” approval to the proposal of the education department to give 20 per cent grant to over 1,628 private schools, which were earlier categorised as “perman
The state cabinet on Tuesday gave “in-principal” approval to the proposal of the education department to give 20 per cent grant to over 1,628 private schools, which were earlier categorised as “permanently unaided schools”.
Education minister Vinod Tawde said that the decision will benefit over 19,000 teachers from 1,628 schools. The government will spend additional '163 crore towards the grant to these schools. However, the opposition has claimed that mere 20 per cent grant is not sufficient.
The issue of government grant to “permanently unaided schools” is almost 16-years-old. But recently, it became came to a boiling point with thousands of teachers across the state protesting against the state governments. A teacher from Aurangabad died due to heart attack while participating in protest last week.
The education minister said even though he had committed to resolve the long-pending issue, some politicians instigated teachers against the government to exploit the issue politically.
Referring to some of the members of legislative council (MLCs), who are elected by teachers, Mr Tawde said, “These were the same representatives who did nothing when the Congress-NCP government did nothing on the issue for 15 years. But the started mobilising teachers for agitation as soon as our government came in power.”
The issue of “permanently unaided schools” started in 2000 when the then state government decided that every new school thereafter should be defined as “permanently unaided” because the state government could not afford to provide them financial assistance. Later bowing to political pressure, the state government in 2009 removed the word ‘permanently’ from the bylaws, which made these schools eligible for financial assistance. However, no decision was taken to provide them government aid.
“I had assured the state legislature that we will resolve the issue before the next academic year. The new academic year starts on June 15 and we have taken the decision before that,” Mr Tawde said.
However, Congress leader Radhkrishna Vikhe-Patil cried foul and added that the decision was unfair to many schools.
