To ensure every school-age child is enrolled, the Maharashtra government has been running the ‘Pahile Paool’ fair as part of its school preparedness campaign. This year marks the third edition of the campaign, which began in 2022. This year as many as 8,27,865 students will enter first grade in council schools across Maharashtra. This includes 12,593 admissions in Mumbai and 14,022 and 25,342 students enrolled in class I in neighbouring Thane and Palghar respectively.

During the summer vacation, this year the Education Department implemented the ‘school preparatory campaign.’ As part of this initiative, a ‘Pahile Paool’ fair was organised at the school level across the state to provide information about the school to first-time eligible students and their parents. Parents were invited and given a ‘Pahile Paool’ booklet, which guided how to prepare their children for education at home before starting primary school. The new academic year will commence accordingly.

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To implement this school preparatory campaign, the Education Department formed community groups of mothers. These groups have been providing educational support at home to children, ensuring they can attend school without fear when the academic session starts. Since last year, over 2.6 lakh groups of mothers were formed at the village level for this campaign. The role of anganwadi workers is also crucial in this effort.

“Starting education at an early age is crucial for developing a child’s personality to its fullest potential. To support this, the Education Department has launched a campaign focused on school preparedness for new students entering the first grade this academic year,” said an official of the state education department. This year’s campaign was conducted across 54,595 zilla parishad, municipal, and government-run schools state-wide, with 5.35 lakh parents participating in the Pahile Paool fair.

Elaborating on the Pahile Paool Melava (fair), an official said: “A total of 1,83,690 teachers from across the state participated in the fair at the school level, while 97,283 Anganwadi sevikas assisted in counselling parents and creating awareness about admissions and related issues. Additionally, around 20,000 officials at the school, block, and district levels were present to support and encourage the campaign.”