A new rule of not apppointing a drawing teacher if a government-run or aided school has less than 500 students has drawn criticism from such teachers, who say the rule is contradictory to recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which emphasises on holistic education.
An association of drawing and sports teachers has written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as well as school education minister Dada Bhuse demanding that this clause in the new rules of sanctioning teaching and non-teaching posts in government-run or aided schools should be reviewed and drawing teachers should be considered at par with sports teachers, which have one sanctioned post for every 250 students.
State Vice-President of the association Kiran Sarode, said: “Art is as important as sports education. Yet, there are two different rules for the two. Schools having 250 students will get a sports teacher but for drawing teachers, a school has to have a minimum of 500 students. If this comes into effect, a majority of schools in rural parts of Maharashtra will not have drawing teachers. This is not only unfair but also against the NEP 2020 recommendations, which insists on holistic education of children.”
As per earlier rules, any school which has classes 5 to 10 would get one post sanctioned for a drawing teacher. New rules were finalised in 2024 but the sanctioning of posts as per the new rules expected last year is taking place only now from April.
As a result, grievances are coming forward from across Maharashtra. Drawing teachers, particularly, are irked because the new rules are going to significantly reduce the number of sanctioned posts.
“Since 2012, there has been no recruitment for drawing teachers in government-run and aided schools. Even as there is no recruitment for drawing teachers since 2012, with new rules, there will not be any contractual appointment, too. Since there were posts, there would at least be contractual appointments of teachers. But with the implementation of new rules, these contractual appointments will also be nullified,” said Sarode.
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