Smt. Savitridevi Thirani Highschool, located in Thane's Vartak Nagar, has voiced discontentment with the state government's "Chief Minister My School, Beautiful School" initiative. The school administration has leveled allegations against the Thane Municipal Corporation's (TMC) education department, asserting that the evaluation process conducted as part of the campaign was inadequate.
According to the school's principal, the committee responsible for evaluation conducted a cursory inspection, lasting only 10 to 15 minutes during the second phase. Furthermore, the school claimed that the committee lacked sufficient understanding of the campaign's objectives. Despite multiple letters addressed to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the state education minister, and the TMC, the school has yet to receive any response, exacerbating their concerns.
The 'My School, Beautiful School' campaign which aimed to transform the schools was implemented all across Maharashtra from Dec 1, 2023, to Jan 15, 2024. In a positive move to boost education, 66 private and government schools have been acknowledged and awarded in the contest. Over one lakh schools and two crore students participated in the campaign that includes 30 different initiatives of the state’s school education department, like Maha Vachan Utsav, Majhi Shala Majhi Parasbag and Swachhta Monitor. The campaign involved evaluating schools at the taluka, district, municipal corporation, division, and state levels.
Jalinder Mane Thirani School Principal told LokmatTimes.com, "On 21st February 2024, TMC officials visited our school for the 2nd phase of evaluation but did not stayed for more than 15 minutes. They were least bothered to take an overview of all the initiatives. We expected that our school would at least come at the municipal level in the evaluation as we persistently implemented most of the activities from the 30 initiatives, like Maha vachan abhiyan, Swachhta Monitor, plastic-free abhiyan etc. even before the campaign was declared.”
Mane stated that he is not complaining about any award or cash price, but the local administration did not pay proper attention while evaluating the initiatives of this campaign. He said, “Despite a lot of student- friendly initiatives, our school ignored us as the TMC officials were in a hurry to just finish the evaluation. We just hope that this situation does not arise again in any government campaign and schools are given recognition where its due.”
Mane said that from June 2023 only, they will run a Maha Vachan campaign in which students on their birthdays carry 2 books in the school instead of chocolates. 1 book is gifted to the free-hand library in the school through which other students can read it. Whereas, the birthday student will read the 2nd book and explain the summary to his/ her parents and neighbor and thereafter create a ‘mahavachan abhiyan.’ Mane said that every child is a swacchata monitor in their school. “Imparting lessons of cleanliness is part of our value system and all children can point out if anybody is not maintaining hygiene.
The principal said that from August 2023, they came up with the concept of ‘Ananda Varga’ to tackle the absentee issue of students. “In order to reduce absentees and provide an inclusive environment for students, we organize various programmes of singing, dancing, story-telling, gardening so that it into curiosity and interest in students to come in the school regularly. This is done in a special classroom called Ananda Varga. We obtained a great result though this and the attendance is regularized now,” said Mane.
When asked by the TMC regarding the school administration’s dissatisfaction regarding the evaluation of the campaign, Varsha Dixit from the Education Department told LokmatTimes.com that she will check with the concerned coordinators who were present for the evaluation and take note of this complaint.