'Fix Our Schools' campaign works, Maharashtra orders immediate repairs

The Maharashtra government has finally acted on the long-standing poor state of its government schools, issuing an official order for the immediate repair of all government schools. The order gives clear instructions to fix basic facilities such as electricity, water, toilets, classrooms and blackboards.

The decision comes after social activist Abhijeet Deepke's "Fix Our Schools" campaign, whose demands have now gained traction at the government level. The government has decided that repair work will be carried out in phases rather than all at once. Initial work under the first phase will begin during the Ganeshotsav holidays, while the remaining work has been ordered to be completed during the Diwali holidays. Toilets, classrooms, blackboards and drinking water facilities have been given top priority. Approval has also been given to use Finance Commission funds for this work.

A meeting of the state's Rural Development Department reviewed the condition of zilla parishad schools, throwing up some startling figures. According to the data presented at the meeting, the state has a total of 63,836 zilla parishad schools. Of these, 40,530 schools were found to have girls' toilets in poor condition, while 663 schools have no separate toilet facility for girls at all. In addition, 1,638 schools do not have toilet facilities for boys either.

During the "Fix Our Schools" campaign, disputes arose in some places over Deepke and his associates entering schools. There was also an allegation that the campaign team was attacked in a village in Jaipur. Meanwhile, Deepke has now announced a new national campaign called "Fix Tribal Schools". He says this campaign will begin from Gadchiroli district and will assess the basic facilities in schools in tribal areas across the country to build pressure on the government for improvements.