Mumbai: Salary Cuts for Striking Teachers, Warns Education Directorate; Maharashtra Teachers Call December 5 ‘School Shutdown’

Mumbai, 4th December 2025: Several teachers’ unions in Maharashtra have declared that they will observe a statewide ‘School Shutdown’ on December 5 to push for a series of long-pending service-related demands. The protest is expected to impact nearly 25,000 private aided, partially aided and unaided schools—almost a quarter of the state’s total educational institutions.

However, the state’s Education Directorate has taken a firm stand against the agitation, warning of disciplinary measures and salary deductions for those who join the strike.

Government Issues Stern Directive: Schools Must Operate on December 5
In an official circular, the Directorate of Education has instructed all schools to remain open on the strike day, emphasising that student learning should not be disrupted. The department has made it clear that any school closing its doors will face administrative action.

Dr. Mahesh Palkar, Director of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, has ordered that a one-day salary cut be imposed on principals, teachers and non-teaching staff who participate in the shutdown.
These directives have been communicated to divisional deputy directors, Zilla Parishad education officers and education inspectors across Maharashtra, who have begun issuing notices to school managements.

Teachers’ unions leading the statewide agitation say the shutdown has become inevitable, claiming that repeated communications with the government have failed to bring progress on long-standing issues.

Their primary demands include:
-Withdrawal of the mandatory TET requirement for teachers recruited before 2013
-Rolling back the revised GR on sanctioned posts and restoring earlier norms
-Reducing excessive non-academic and online workload
-Scrapping the Shikshan Sevak scheme and granting regular pay scales
-Immediate recruitment of non-teaching staff
-Implementation of the revised Assured Progression Scheme
-Special concessions on sanctioned posts for minority schools
-Ending contractual and outsourced hiring practices in education
-Union representatives argue that these measures are essential to restore stability and dignity in the teaching profession.

With both sides holding firm, the December 5 shutdown is poised to cause significant educational disruption unless the government intervenes with concrete assurances. Teachers’ organisations insist the protest will proceed as planned, while the Education Directorate has reiterated its warning that absentees will face penalties.