Maharashtra's classrooms stay half-filled as schools have been inflating attendance

Maharashtra government has decided to act tough against the schools with an inflated number of students, education minister Vinod Tawde told the state legislature on November 30. In a special drive to test the attendance in the schools, 1,404 schools were found to have less than 50 per cent of students in the classrooms than those on the records.

The government had ordered a criminal action against such schools in the month of July. Some schools had challenged the order in the court. However, even the court endorsed the action; Tawde told the house and added that the action would be completed within the next couple of months. Tawde also said that SARAL software has been introduced to digitize all the school records and AADHAR seeding of around 85 per cent students is complete.

He added that the remaining 15 per cent work too would be completed soon after which the schools won't be able to hide actual numbers of their students. BJP MLA Ashish Shelar, who had made the query in this regard said that immediate action was warranted in the case. He also suggested that the action should be taken under the IPC section 420 as this amounts to cheating. The minister said that the mode of action would be decided in consultation with the law and judiciary department. Shelar also raised the issue of appointments of teachers, over which Tawde said that the 16 per cent reservation would be implemented in the appointment of 24,000 teachers in the state.