Mumbai: At a time when there’s a language war playing out in Maharashtra, the number of Marathi medium schools has been swiftly dwindling in Mumbai, a result of government apathy and parents’ preference for English.
Thirty-nine Marathi medium schools have shut down in Mumbai, with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) data showing the number coming down from 460 in 2019-20 to 421 in 2025-26.
While the Maharashtra government blames the parents for preferring English medium, experts, educators and activists say that the administration is simply not putting enough efforts to upgrade infrastructure in these schools.
Deepak Pawar, convenor, school education action coordination committee, asserted that the government cannot shy away from accepting the responsibility of this decline.
“In the case of Mumbai, it is the BMC’s responsibility to successfully run the government schools. In the last 6 years, since 2022, the BMC is under state administration while earlier, under the Shiv Sena Mumbai Public school experiment was done by Aaditya Thackeray. Thisexperiment (shifting municipal schools to the Mumbai Public Schools) has affected Marathi schools as English medium schools were given preferences,” Pawar said.
“Besides, Marathi medium schools’ infrastructure should be upgraded without changing its medium to English. But our leaders don’t understand this, rather they create good infrastructure for the English medium.”
The Marathi Abhyas Kendra founder is leading a campaign against Hindi imposition in primary school education.
What’s concerning is that while 100 Marathi medium schools were shut down in the city in the last 10 years, 39 of them are from the last six years. Around 50,000 students had to take admissions elsewhere from the 2019-20 academic session onwards.
The topic had come up for discussion in the Maharashtra Legislative Council on 18 July. “Marathi medium schools are getting affected because parents are preferring to put their kids into English medium. That is why the number of students in the Marathi medium is declining,” school education minister Dada Bhuse had said.
On Friday, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde took potshots at the Shiv Sena (UBT) stating that the present government did not commit the “sin” of closing down civic-run Marathi-medium schools in Mumbai.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Sunil Shinde, who had raised this question in the Council, told ThePrint that Marathi schools should be saved to preserve the language, culture and its roots.
“The government comes up with so many schemes. Some work, some don’t. There are losses everywhere. But just because a school doesn’t have enough students and it is in loss, we should not shut it,” he said.
“While I agree many people want to put their kids in English medium, still there are many who want to put their kids in Marathi medium though their percentage is low. Why will you deprive them of education? There should be enough teachers and staff, and the schools should be kept open. The government should promote Marathi medium schools if it is serious about preserving Marathi language.”
BJP leader Ram Kadam conceded that the demand is more for English medium. “It isn’t that Marathi schools are going down. Just that parents are preferring to send their kids to English medium. Those who studied in Marathi medium, they too want their kids to learn English from Class 1. I get so many letters saying that they don’t want semi-English schools but full English medium schools. In this case, the government can only provide facilities but can’t do anything if people don’t want to send children,” he told ThePrint.
ThePrint reached BMC education officer Sujata Khare via calls and messages for a comment. This article copy will be updated once a response is received.
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Problem faced by Marathi medium
In Mumbai, the BMC runs English, Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Telugu, Gujarati, Kannada, and Tamil medium schools in areas under its jurisdiction. Most of the students in these BMC-run regional schools are underprivileged and from lower middle class families.
A teacher at a government school, who says that her school has less than 40 students from Class 1 to Class 10, feels the shift of Marathi population towards the outskirts is one of the reasons for the decline.
“Just about 7 odd years ago, we had over 100 students at our school. But as the buildings got redeveloped and high-rise towers came about, many Marathi speaking population shifted to different localities. And so even if we have certain facilities at our school, we are unable to convince middle and upper middle class parents to send their kids,” the teacher said.
Another teacher Rajesh Singh, who teaches at a private school, feels that the approval given to English medium schools is vastly different vis-à-vis their regional counterparts with a preference towards the former.
“I feel the government does not want to promote government schools. I feel that even if there is one student studying in a Marathi medium school, it should not be shut as someone is getting education. If Marathi medium schools won’t work in Maharashtra, then where else? The government should promote it. It should give permission to Marathi medium schools just like English,” Singh told ThePrint.
Working at a Mumbai-based NGO, social worker Mumtaz Shaikh blames the poor infrastructure of Marathi schools and their non-availability in the vicinity for this decline.
“Their infrastructure lacks quality as opposed to English medium. According to the government rules, there should be a primary school every 1 km, but this is not the case,” she adds.
Moreover, students do not get their quota of books, uniform, bag, shoes, etc on time. Instead of June, they are given in October or so or even the quality is not up to date, she says. “I feel this also needs attention.”
Tanajee Kamble, teacher and president of progressive teachers’ union, blamed the government for this situation.
Explaining the problem from teachers’ point of view, Kamble says that earlier for 30 students, there would be 1 teacher. This went up to 60:2 and 61-90: 3 ratio. But this proportion changed via a government resolution (GR) dated 15th March 2024. Now the minimum requirement for 3 teachers is 76 students and not 61, he explains.
“The government says that parents are responsible, but I hold the government responsible. This GR has impacted many teachers… What is the need for reducing the number of teachers? Quality will be ensured, when there are teachers. If the workload of 5 teachers is placed on 3, the quality will go down,” he argues.
Kamble feels additional responsibilities given to teachers like election duties, UDISE (Unified District Information System for Education) portal work also affect quality of work. “It is the responsibility of the government, teachers, and students to improve the quality of education in Marathi schools,” he asserts.
To improve the condition, educators feel that incentives can be one way out. The teacher quoted above says that well-established past students can promote their schools and Marathi education on social media to encourage more and more parents.
“One of the reasons parents go for English medium schools is so that the child doesn’t face discrimination in higher education. So the government can consider a certain education stream in Marathi. And during the school years, regional students should be prepared for competitive exams. Saving Marathi language and schools should be considered as a responsibility of all including local representatives,” the teacher says.
In his statement to the Council, Bhuse had said that in Marathi schools, the government is providing facilities like free books, uniform, imparting computer education, digital labs, and other facilities. “We are providing facilities including financial assistance to girl child parents, scholarships, library facilities, etc. We are working towards saving Marathi schools,” the school education minister had said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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