Over 1,300 non-performing schools to be shut

In a major culling move, state education minister Vinod Tawde on Saturday announced that the Maharashtra State government has decided to shut down over 1,300 non-performing schools across the state.

In the next few days, almost 1,314 schools under the state — with 0 to 10 students —are going to be shut, because admissions to these schools have reduced as parents have withdrawn admissions over "poor quality of education". These schools were part of the 4,353 schools that belong to the Zilla Parishad and 10 were privately aided.

According to school education principal secretary Nandkumar, "The parents have withdrawn the admission of their children from these schools because of poor quality of education."

However, Tawde explained the closures as, "The number of students have become less in these 1,314 schools so there are no gatherings and no competition for those students in school. Hence, the students and teachers of these schools are being shifted to those were there are more students. These schools will be within the 1-kilometre distance for primary students and 3-kilometer radius for secondary students as defined in the Right to Education Act. Neither teachers nor students are being affected due to this step."

As per RTE Act, primary school for students from Class I to Class 5 of age 6-11 should be within a distance of 1 kilometre and each class should have at least 20 students.

According to the state government, in mountain terrains, there were schools that were run even when there were no students. In a recent inspection of 5,002 schools, it was found that there were schools with only 10 students.