MUMBAI, 19 April 2008 — In a boost to Maharashtra government’s efforts to rope in the private sector in a big way to expand the education network, the Supreme Court has approved the state’s decision to permit nearly 1,500 unaided schools by private societies. After a long-drawn legal battle on the issue, the state had issued a notification on May 16, 2006 granting permission to open 1,495 higher secondary schools on “no grant basis” after scrutinizing the applications of over 3,000 societies.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal approved the policy by setting aside a Bombay High Court order, which had struck down the government decision. The high court had canceled the plan on the ground that it did not conform to the guidelines laid down by the court asking the government to draw a comprehensive master plan for the expansion.
“The state order of May 16, 2006 permitting new schools will continue to be in force. It is the duty of the state to provide access to education. Unless new schools in the private sector are permitted, it will not be possible for the state to discharge its constitutional obligation,” the chief justice said in his order and added that penalty can be imposed if schools are found flouting “education code.”
Meanwhile, even as medical students across government medical colleges continued their agitation against the reduction in postgraduate seats, teachers and the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) declared unstinting support by announcing an indefinite strike.
However, while the teachers agreed on April 22, as the official date for joining the strike, in Mumbai some teachers worked with black armbands, a gesture the protesting students and resident doctors took to be a sign of launching the strike.
The strike is to protest the Medical Council of India’s (MCI) decision to slash the number of postgraduate seats in medical education from 653 in year 2007 to 411 this year. This, according MCI, will affect the teacher-student ratio of 1:1. But this ratio is not acceptable to students themselves. “In fact, we want the number of seats to be raised to 1,900 as it was in the year 2001,” said MARD member from KEM Hospital Ravikant Singh.
Another MARD member form JJ Hospital Abhishek Jadhav said: “The MARD decided to support the strike and it will not be withdrawn until MCI first raises the number of seats this year to 653, and eventually to 1,900.” He added that even teachers were eager to join the strike.
Hospital services are likely to be hit hard with even resident doctors joining the strike, but yesterday the MARD decided to work with black armbands on. Minister for Higher Education Dilip Walse Patil, who had flown to Delhi on Thursday morning to discuss the issue with the MCI and the central Directorate of Higher Education returned to Pune last night. When asked about the outcome of his visit, Patil refused to speak to the media and drove off to his residence.
