After Aditya Thackeray, Varsha Gaikwad Reviews State's Education System

Uddhav Thackeray led Government's School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad recently set up a 'Think Tank' committee to discuss and improve the quality of education in Maharashtra. As stated in the Press Trust of India (PTI), the think-tank will include professionals from various sectors, elected representatives, education experts, teachers, parents, retired bureaucrats who have been involved in formulating education policies, NGOs and media covering the education beat. 

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Gaikwad plans to hold an interaction with the members of this Think Tank and to brainstorm on constructive ways to upgrade the education system. They will also be assesing the problems and challenges in the current education system. Further, she has reviewed the functioning and condition of schools across the state. 

Recently, the newly appointed Tourism and Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray also reviewed the State education system in municipal schools. The meeting was attended by officials from the education department, educationists and non-profits in the field of education. 

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This informal meet was held on January 7 and even Aditya Thackeray participated in this meet. The attendees of this meeting discussed topics like high drop-out rates, poor quality of teaching and falling enrollments among others. Officials decided to scale up the partnership between private and civic schools which is currently done only with 80 schools in the city. Moreover, it was proposed that there should be an Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) curriculum in the existing BMC schools.

Recently, Aditya Thackeray discussed the changes in the education system at the HUII conference that was held at Taj in Colaba. He said, 

After evaluating everything, we have come to the conclusion that there are two main reasons that children drop out of Municipal schools. The first one is that the kids migrate to their hometowns or villages and leave their education midway. Another reason is that these children prefer selling items roadside than attending schools as they feel that feeding their family and themselves is important.