MUMBAI: All government, aided, and private schools across every district of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, will undergo comprehensive inspections by senior education department officials in consultation with local MPs, MLAs, and district guardian ministers under the state’s new ”Chala Shalet Jau Abhiyan” (Let’s Go to School Campaign).To enforce direct accountability, a senior officer will be designated as the ‘Shikshan Palak’ (Educational Guardian) for each district, school education minister Dadaji Bhuse announced at a news conference on Wednesday.Addressing whether workers of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), who have been conducting audits of government schools themselves, will accompany the officials, Bhuse said, “This initiative is not an audit, but anyone who has good intentions is always welcome.”Under the initiative, designated teams will execute an initial four-day field drive in their assigned districts, followed by mandatory monthly visits to maintain continuous oversight.Bhuse said, “This is not about just visits by officials at a particular time each month at the strike of the clock, but rather about a sustained presence at each school”.The inspections will prioritize campus hygiene, clean toilets, safe drinking water, and foundational literacy and numeracy for students from Balvatika up to Class 3.Bhuse said officials have been instructed to tap into District Planning Committee (DPC) funds and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to plug infrastructure gaps.Teams will also assess overall academic performance alongside co-curricular activities like sports, self-defense training, NCC, and Scout-Guide programmes.
