We, the voters: 5 changes teachers feel are must in Maharashtra

New learning initiatives

Two years ago, Vandana Korade, currently working at ZP Sarole Bhor Pune, started learning Spanish through Youtube, language apps and audio lessons online. This was not her trying to excel at a new hobby. It was rather a resolve to keep her students at the Gorhe Budruk, Pune Zilla Parishad school at par with the world. As a result of this initiative, students at the school now have foundational knowledge of Spanish like basic conversations, animal names, numbers, etc.

But Korade, who has been a teacher for 18 years now, is saddened by the fact that students of zilla parishad schools are not learning new things due to lack of such initiatives.

“Who do you think comes up with new ideas? It is the young ones. But when there is no hiring for ten years, from where will new ideas seep into the everyday teaching at zilla parishad schools? There is no intervention by the government to enhance the skills of the students,” said Korade.

Timely recruitment drives

In February 2024, the Maharashtra School Education Department had announced a major teacher recruitment drive for a total of 21,678 posts. It had come after a long wait. Korade said people who were up for promotions ten years ago, got them two months before their retirement.

“When these posts are empty for so long, who do you think takes up the responsibilities? Senior teachers take up tasks of the headmaster and automatically it becomes a cycle where everyone is taking up someone else’s responsibilities. In the end, it is the students who suffer,” said Korade.

Non-teaching burden

Teachers were asked to take up door-to-door surveys for Maratha reservation. They are also required to take up work related to census, filling up forms and maintaining Aadhar card records of students to prevent duplicate admissions, etc.

It is an issue brought up time and again through protests, but nothing has changed, say teachers. “When teachers are supposed to take up so many non-teaching responsibilities, it makes me wonder if the government at all cares about the academic excellence of its students,” said Korade.

Bhausaheb Chaskar, who has been a teacher at a zilla parishad school near Shirdi for 28 years, also emphasises that there is need for clerical appointments in schools. “Teachers even have to check if the tank has water, clean the classrooms, etc,” said Korade.

Old pension scheme

Echoes of the ‘NPS go back, OPS come back’ slogan have been heard at numerous protests in different parts of the country that call for the restoration of the old pension scheme. The old pension scheme is a benefit scheme but the new one deducts money from the salary of teachers among other government employees to be given as a pension later. “The pension amount too has significantly reduced,” said Korade.

Regulation of new institutes of higher education, better infrastructure

Subhash Athawale, general secretary, Mumbai University and College Teachers Association said government agencies should regulate new institutes that are coming up and check if they are adhering to the required standards. “If not, they should cease to exist,” said Athawale.

President, Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation (MFUCTO) Dr Shamrao P Lawande said, “According to the National Education Policy’s implementation directives, the gross enrolment in higher education is to be increased from 27 per cent to 50 per cent, which is good. But to accommodate these students, infrastructure and staff are required, which nobody talks about. Increasing enrolment without bettering infrastructure will result in substandard education.”