15k students in state ditch English medium schools for Marathi

NAGPUR: In a surprising reversal of trend in school education, Maharashtra has witnessed an exodus of almost 15,000 students from English medium schools to Marathi schools. Defying stereotypical perceptions, students in almost every district including ones with big cities have flocked to Marathi medium schools, giving a big boost the education department’s constant push for promoting Marathi in class curriculum.
Statistics shared by the education department revealed that 14,647 students left English schools for their Marathi counterparts this academic session. What makes these figures even more interesting is that majority of Marathi medium schools are managed by local self-governing bodies, which means that students are quitting private schools and heading to ones managed by zilla parishad or municipal corporations. While many would consider it a ‘downgrade’, the education department feels it’s high time people changed their perception.
Dipendra Lokhande, district’s primary education officer, said, “Majority of the people have not visited ZP schools, which is adding to this false perception. Now our schools have been completely revamped with classrooms being made highly attractive and appealing to students. Students enjoy coming to class and look forward to an environment which has a fun element to it.”
He adds that the teaching methodology too has undergone a massive change, which is attracting students back to Marathi schools. “ZP teachers have adapted to the changing classroom scenario and are viewing themselves as facilitators of knowledge. New teaching theory says our job is to guide the student because every child has the intelligence level to understand and grasp things,” said Lokhande.
In rural areas, Lokhande feels this new avatar of ZP schools is acting like a magnet for families to send their kids. “They used to believe that sending kids to private English schools would turn them into more intelligent students, while in ZP Marathi schools it might be the opposite. This type of thinking is wrong because academic quality in our schools has increased by leaps and bounds. We have a teaching system called ‘gyan rachnavaad’, which means constructivism. So, models, paintings and charts etc are made of topics that are taught in school and presented before children. This helps them not only to learn but also understand the concepts at school,” said Lokhande.
In Nagpur district, 690 students shifted to Marathi schools. This may seem minuscule, but just the fact that a reverse trend has started is a major development in itself. In the district, there are about 1,500 Marathi schools run by zilla parishad and another 400 or so run by private institutions. About 1,110 are schools in which language of instruction is either English, Hindi or Urdu.