Mumbai: The Maha Vikas Aghadi government plans to make Marathi a compulsory subject in all schools across Maharashtra. The state government is set to pass legislation today that will make teaching Marathi mandatory for all educational boards including the CBSE, IB, ICSE and Cambridge from the 2020-2021 academic year.
The Maharashtra Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Marathi Language in Schools Bill, 2020, was passed by the Maharashtra Legislative Council Wednesday. The Bill will be presented in the Legislative Assembly Thursday, which is being celebrated across Maharashtra as the Marathi Bhasha Diwas.
The Bill was presented in the Legislative Council by Shiv Sena Minister Subhash Desai, who is in charge of the Marathi Bhasha Vibhag, a newly created department by the state government. A fine of Rs 1 lakh will be levied on schools not complying with the provisions of the Bill.
At present, Marathi is offered in private non-state board schools up to class VIII. While Marathi is compulsory in some schools it is an optional subject in others.
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To be gradually implemented for classes
The government plans to make Marathi mandatory for classes 1 to 10 from 2020 to 2025. In the 2020-2021 academic session, Marathi will be a compulsory subject for class I in the primary section and class VI in the secondary section. It will be extended progressively to the other classes until it covers all of them by the 2024-2025 academic session.
When schools need to register or obtain NOCs, the compulsory teaching of Marathi will be a condition according to the provisions of the new Bill.
According to the objectives of the Bill, it is being brought in as the students in Maharashtra who study in the other boards (central and international) are not learning Marathi, the language of the state. It further states that there is a need for a Language Bill on the lines of that in Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.
Speaking on the Bill, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that Marathi was not sakhti (compulsion) but shakti (power) and bhakti (devotion). “The Shiv Sena was formed for the identity of Marathi. I am so fortunate that this is happening under my government,” Thackeray said in the Legislative Council.
The leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, the BJP’s Pravin Darekar (a former MNS leader) applauded the move and said that it will re-emphasise the glory of Marathi.
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Culmination of efforts to make Marathi compulsory
There have been earlier efforts to make Marathi compulsory in schools in the state.
In 2009, the Congress-NCP government led by the late chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had issued a Government Resolution (GR) making it mandatory for schools to teach Marathi in classes 1 to 4.
In 2012, another GR by the Congress-NCP Government made it compulsory for Marathi to be taught up to class VIII in schools affiliated to ICSE, CBSE, IGSCE, IB or any other board. Another GR during the same year made it a condition to be fulfilled by the non-state school boards while seeking NOCs from the Maharashtra government.
In November 2018, the then minister for school Education Vinod Tawade (in the Devendra Fadnavis led BJP-Shiv Sena Government) had stated in the Maharashtra Legislative Council that Marathi would be made compulsory up to Class 10 in all schools.
In August 2019, the Fadnavis government formed a Marathi literary committee for educationists and ministers to prepare a draft law to make Marathi mandatory across boards.
The MVA government scrapped the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB), thereby reversing the decision of the Fadnavis government. The decision was announced by the Minister for School Education Varsha Gaikwad. This portfolio is held by the Congress party.
The compulsory implementation of Marathi language in schools through a Bill comes at a time when the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has embarked on its Marathi manoos plank with more aggression than in previous years.
By bringing in a Bill the Shiv Sena has tried to take away an important issue of the MNS, which has been demanding the compulsory implementation of Marathi language in schools up to Class 10.
By setting up a dedicated Marathi Bhasha Department, the Shiv Sena is sending a signal to its critics that the party has not given up its sons-of-the-soil plank despite being in governance with the NCP and the Congress Party.
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