5 months ago
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Nearly 1.8 lakh teachers crossed Maharashtra staged a day-long onslaught on Friday (December 5, 2025), shutting down implicit 95% of Zilla Parishad schools, 60% of municipal schools, and 75% of backstage aided schools, according to teachers‘ relation successful the State. The protest is coordinated by 35 unions representing superior and secondary teachers arsenic good arsenic non-teaching unit from crossed the state.
Active Teachers Forum convener Bhau Chaskar, a ZP schoolhouse teacher from Ahilyanagar (Akole block), said the agitation was wide successful areas wherever the predetermination codification of behaviour was not successful force. “Parents’ unions besides joined america successful immoderate places. The halfway contented is nonrecreational dignity—after completing D.Ed and B.Ed, teachers look arbitrary changes successful norms. The authorities indispensable amend the Right to Education Act and rotation backmost regressive policies,” helium said.
The flashpoint is the Government Resolution (GR) dated March 15, 2024, which prescribes a stringent student-teacher ratio. Protesters reason that this volition unit closure of nearly 17,000 schools, particularly successful agrarian and tribal belts, wherever enrolment often falls beneath 20 students. “If implemented, this volition hitch retired teachers from these areas, pushing children into child labour and aboriginal marriage. It’s a usurpation of RTE provisions,” Mr. Chaskar warned.
The GR besides mandates accommodation of schools with debased pupil strength, which unions accidental volition disrupt acquisition and interruption RTE norms requiring entree to schools successful each habitation. Teachers request the argumentation beryllium scrapped, and the government ensures no closures nether the guise of rationalization.
Teachers besides slammed the increasing load of non-academic tasks and app-based monitoring. “Uploading photos for NGO-driven programs like STARS, funded by the World Bank, means taking children 4 km distant for web access. These activities erode teaching clip and productivity,” said Chaskar.
Vijay Kombe, State President, Maharashtra Rajya Prathmaik Shishak Samiti, from Wardha, said the onslaught began astatine 10 a.m. and ended astatine 6.30 p.m. without immoderate effect from the government. “We request contiguous withdrawal of the GR, rollback of the Teacher Aptitude Test (TAT), and an extremity to non-teaching duties. How tin 1 teacher grip 3 classes? This is unacceptable,” Kombe asserted.
The unions person warned of an indefinite onslaught if their demands—TET verification clarity, wage standard revisions, pension settlements, and filling of agrarian vacancies—are ignored. “This is not conscionable astir superior education; secondary schools are arsenic affected,” Mr. Kombe added.
