Education dept gets 1,724 proposals for cluster schools

Pune: The state education department has received 1,724 applications from across Maharashtra for starting cluster schools, said education commissioner Suraj Mandhare.However, the scheme will only be implemented when the education department is able to convince the court about the same, he added.Earlier this month, the Bombay high court sought the state government’s reply to a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) against the state’s proposed cluster school policy, according to which smaller government-run schools will be merged with bigger ones in the vicinity. During a conference held in October in Pune, officials of the education department directed all district education officers to survey their areas for schools that can be merged to form cluster schools and send a proposal to the education department.“There are 1,724 cluster school proposals from across the state and the numbers may increase. The Union government also lauded the initiative last week and issued guidelines for clustering of schools after in-depth study. There is one sou moto PIL on cluster schools in the Bombay High Court. We will first convince the court about the scheme, and then implement it,” said Mandhare.A senior education department official said that proposals have come in from district education officers. “If a school is in a remote area and is inaccessible by road, it will not be told to merge with cluster schools. Only schools, which are nearby, and accessible by road, and where students can be given transport allowance, will form cluster schools. The idea is to provide schools for students with all the necessary infrastructure, enough teachers for all subjects, and enough students for peer learning. Parents who send their children to schools with just 2, 5 or 10 students will have a choice to send them to a bigger school nearby. This doesn’t mean the smaller schools will close down. This just means more schools will open,” said the official.Mahendra Ganpule, spokesperson of the Maharashtra State Principals’ Forum, said that any move that destroys the basic principles of the RTE Act is wrong. “The RTE Act says that students till standard V should have access to schools within 1 km radius of their home, while those till standard VIII should have access to schools within 5 km radius of their home. Till now, the government has been unable to implement this clause. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that students have schools near their home. Instead, the government is talking about a school, which is many kilometres away from their home. Students will spend over an hour commuting to school and as much time going back home. Why should young children need to travel so much to reach school?” he said.