Updated on: Monday, July 15, 2013
The directorate of education ( DoE) has begun releasing grants to the around 50 new schools that were set up last year under the scheme for grants to Konkani and Marathi schools.
The scheme was introduced last year where distance criteria was relaxed so new Konkani and Marathi schools could be opened as an encouragement to primary schools imparting education in the mother tongue. The scheme came into existence after 127 government aided primary schools shifted to English medium in defiance of the government rules of offering grants only to regional language elementary schools.
"Around 50 new Konkani and Marathi primary schools have opened last year under the scheme. Around October 2012, they were inspected by education officials and the process of giving them recognition is on. Once they secure recognition, they will be released grants. Three to four schools have already got these grants. The rest will start getting them soon as the recognition process is nearing completion," director of education Anil Powar said.
He said that giving permission to schools to open does not automatically entitle the institutes to get recognition and grants.
"We have to see that they are functioning with the necessary infrastructure to give them recognition and only after getting the recognition do they get the grants," Powar said.