Marathi to be made compulsory for CBSE ICSE board in Maharashtra

The Chef Minister Devendra Fadvanis on Thursday said that the state government of Maharashtra is set to bring in a regulation-making Marathi Language compulsory for all the schools especially the CBSE and ICSE students in the state. The chief minister said that the schools in the state which are not affiliated to the state education board have a provision to teach Marathi in the schools and despite this, if there are schools which do not teach the language then the state will initiate action against them. He also added that if need be the existing law can be amended to make sure that Marathi is taught in all the schools in the state.

Presently Marathi is a compulsory subject until Class 8 in all the schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) which is a private board which conducts the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) examination.

This came in response to the query by Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe who wanted to know the status of making Marathi compulsory in the schools which are not affiliated to the Maharashtra State Education board. She also added that the former chairman of the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, Laxmikant Deshmukh has decided to stage a protest at Azad Maidan in South Mumbai on Monday with the demand of making Marathi a compulsory subject in schools which do not come under the state education board.

Fadvanis also added that he will personally meet the delegation along with the Marathi language Minister Vinod Tawde and also assured that all the appropriate demands will be fulfilled in time.

Officials from the school education department have mentioned that all the schools of the CBSE in the state of Maharashtra are required to teach Marathi as a compulsory language until Class 8 while for Class 9 and 10 Marathi language is optional. Another official of the board has stated that the government has issued a circular asking the schools to teach Marathi as a subject. He added that it is just a circular but there is no law which makes the Marathi language mandatory. This he pointed could be one of the reasons for the non-state board schools do not follow it.