20 hrs more of schooling every week

The state school education department's decision to extend teaching hours from 30 to 50 hours a week has not gone down well. Parents have declared a protest against the department's policy that was drafted in 2004.

Parents said that the policy came into existence only this month following pressure from school education inspectors. As part of their protest, the parents conducted a signature campaign. More than 1,000 parents joined the protest against increasing the number of teaching hours.

However, schools disagree that this will have an adverse impact on students. Suchita Bhawalkar, head mistress of VN Sule Guruji English School, said, "We have ensured that the increase will not affect students. The extra hours will be utilised by involving teachers in administrative and academic work and not for teaching or conducting extra lectures."

The school education department seems to be oblivious about the issue. "Unless parents express their grievances in writing it is impossible to resolve the issue," said Sharvari Gokhale, the department's secretary.