The state cabinet on Tuesday approved a major proposal from the tribal development department to recruit 254 subject-specific science teachers for Classes XI and XII at 254 adivasi schools.
With this decision, one more sanctioned post will be added to the existing three, reducing the workload for science teachers who have to teach two specialised subjects to these classes.
The new batch of teachers will hold a masters degree in science, reaching out to more than 25,000 students enrolled in 111 government ashramshalas and 143 aided ashramshalas across Maharashtra, said a statement by the department.
As of now, only three teachers are available for four core subjects, including physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. “The shortage of subject-specific teachers added to the workload of each teacher who had to teach two subjects and the possibility of inadequate training to students in science and math could not be ruled out,” the statement added.
Now, the science department will soon have four teachers, each entrusted with their subject of specialisation. The cabinet also approved another proposal from the department to set up five new scheduled tribe (ST) caste certificate scrutiny committees and also added two more such panels for the welfare of ST communities.
As of now, there are only eight such committees located in Thane, Pune, Nashik, Nandurbar, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nagpur and Gadchiroli.
These committees have to deal with 1,500 to 2,000 caste certificate applications every month, adding to pending cases. In a bid to fast-track issuance of caste certificates, the cabinet approved five new committees in Palghar, Nashik, Dhule, Kinwat (Nanded) and Chandrapur. In addition, the cabinet also directed the department to create two more such committees in Yavatmal and Gondia districts.