Ronita Torcato
Maharashtra’s school education department has directed schools across the state, irrespective of Board affiliation, to sing the state’s anthem ‘Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha’ at morning assembly.
The song, written by Raja Nilkanth Badhe was declared the official state song in February 2023. It will have to be performed after the national anthem during daily school assemblies, according to a release from the state school education department. Students will have to sing two stanzas of this catchy song which has a total duration of 101 seconds.
“Apart from ensuring that students from all types of schools learn and know the state-song, the objective is also to inform children about the state of Maharashtra,”School education minister Bhuse said, adding that the initiative aims to familiarise students across the state with Maharashtra’s anthem to foster a deeper understanding and connection with the state.
Minister Bhuse announced several other measures as part of a new roadmap for the next 100 days mat a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
These include geo-tagging schools and anganwadis, mapping them with photographs for the effective bringing out-of-school children back into the system, using CSR funds for school development and implementing a new state curriculum based on the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
Most of these have been discussed threadbare at previous meetings and it is not clear exactly when they would be implemented.
Minister Bhuse also reiterated his commitment to enforcing the regulation that mandates Marathi language teaching in all schools.Introduced in 2021, this rule has not been consistently followed by many non-state board schools. However, Catholic English medium schools have been teaching Marathi from standard three for more than 70 years. Hindi classes commenced in standard five. A number or students, unable to cope, attended coaching classes.
Chief Minister Fadnavis, during the meeting, directed the department to also focus on the registration of pre-primary education, as per NEP guidelines, and set qualification criteria for pre-primary educators, ensuring that certificates are displayed in schools for parents’ information.
The school education department’s roadmap includes ranking schools based on the quality of education, creating a digital registry of effective teaching practices, adapting the CBSE pattern in all state schools, and expediting the teacher recruitment process.
