It looks like this Teachers’ Day has nothing happy in store for teachers employed at state-run schools across Maharashtra. Just days after the state issued a Government Resolution (GR) to derecognise principals of schools with less than 135 students and term them as ‘surplus’, more bad news is in the offing for the state-run schools and their teachers.

In a recent decision by the central government, calling for changes in the funding pattern for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) has jeopardised various educational schemes operated by the education department. Until recently, the centre would chip in 65 per cent of the total budget set aside by the state to run schemes under SSA, while the remaining 35 per cent came from the state government.