Education has been held with respect in Maharashtra and progression has been done in many respects in this field. Literacy rate of the state is perhaps the second highest in the country and more than the literacy average in the country, according to 2011 census. Rate of literacy among males is about 90% while more than 75% is rate of literacy in females.

Gap in literacy rate among the genders is also going down. Between the years 2001 and 2010, there has been increase in the enrolment of students, growth of educational institutions and number of teachers. The difference between the school children enrolment in terms of gender is about lower than 6%, but goes to 15% when it comes to the levels of higher secondary and secondary schools.

Many of the schools in Maharashtra have had their infrastructure improved by the implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Ratio of students and teachers was below 1 to 40, situation being seen in about 95% of schools. It was a difficult scenario for increasing the achievements in learning and a big challenge for Maharashtra.

Education Pattern in Maharashtra

Infrastructure for education of high standard can be found in Maharashtra, presently having 21 deemed universities, 19 state universities and one central university, while the number of primary and secondary schools are around 75000 and 196000 respectively. Nearly 300 colleges of diploma courses and engineering courses are found in Maharashtra, with ITI colleges numbering 600. Rate of literacy is about 82.91%, more than the average in India. Many universities from old days, with best names are found in Maharashtra, such as the 1857 established University of Mumbai, 1949 established University of Pune and the University of Nagpur in 1923.

Primary Education

The degree education is of 10+2+3, of which the school education lasts 10 years, broken into primary level for 4 years, upper primary level for 3 years and high school of 3 years. Examinations are held at the end of 10th, 12th and represent the secondary and then the higher secondary education followed by board examination. In 2011, on 11th October, the rules for State RTE were notified and presently, there are efforts to adopt the system of 5+3+2+2+3 as the elementary cycle.

In the primary level education field, Maharashtra has taken giant steps. In the last couple of decades, the 2011 census has shown that rate of literacy goes to the extent of 80% literacy. Starting from 1951, the impetus to provide primary education in village areas was government program. This led to the compulsion to finish the primary education standardization. Gradually, the number of students seeking admissions into primary level schools has increased, textbooks are given to people and scholarships on merit are also given out for encouraging children.

Resources Infra

Resources development of humans has been quite good in Maharashtra particularly related to infrastructure development in institutions. There are about 616 institutes for industrial training, diploma and engineering colleges numbering 301, while about 24 universities are existing, where the number of technocrat turnover is about 160,000 every year.

The state has plenty of institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) where the first Supercomputer of India was developed, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), Visvesvaraya National Institute of technology, Nagpur (VNIT), Army institute of technology, Pune (AIT), Sardar Patel college of engineering, university department of chemical technology, Vishwakarma Institute of technology, Pune (VIT), College of Engineering, Pune (COEP), Fergusson College Pune, National Academy of direct taxes, Nagpur, mahatma Gandhi institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha, National power training institute, Nagpur, Institute of management technology (IMT), Government college of engineering, Aurangabad, Government college of engineering, Amravati, Government Dental College and Hospital, Nagpur, Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur, Government College of Engineering, Karad, Government Medical College Nagpur, Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering and Technology, Nanded, Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli, Topiwala National Medical College and BYL Nair Charitable Hospital and Laxminarayan Institute of Technology and many other management institutions among the top rankers in the country. Maharashtra has about 50,000 youths, who are trained to start some self employment venture on a yearly basis every year under the MCED or Maharashtra Centre for Entrepreneurship Development near Aurangabad.

In the state, there are about 82.9% literates, which is more than the national average. In the world, University of Mumbai rates as one of the universities with the highest number of graduates. Some of the most well known technical institutes like University Institute of Chemical Technology, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) and Indian Institute of Technology or IIT-Bombay are found in Mumbai, along with universities with autonomous control such as SNDT Women’s University.

Mumbai also has National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies or NMIMS, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies or JBIMS, K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research or SIMSR and many other such business institutes. The oldest law college in India, Government Law College and the oldest commerce college in India, Sydenham College are also found in Mumbai. In Asia, the third rank in oldest colleges is credited to College of Engineering Pune, which was established in 1854.

Two of the most important institutes of research in India are located in Mumbai, namely the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre or BARC and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research or TIFR. Under the operations of BARC is included the management of CIRUS, which is a Trombay located nuclear reactor of 40 MW capacity.

National Defence Academy, University of Pune, National Film Archives, Film and Television Institute of India, National Chemical Laboratory and Armed Forces Medical College came into being in Pune, post independence days.

Amongst the law colleges in the first ten in India, ILS Law College has a place, this institute being under the Indian Law Society. Well known institutes of medical sciences like Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Armed Forces Medical College providing training to medical students, who take admissions in these institutes, from Maharashtra and other parts of India, making these ranked high amongst the top colleges in the country. Military Nursing College under AFMC has gained top ranking in the nursing colleges of the country.

University of Nagpur was established in 1923 and has the credit of being among the Indian universities with oldest history. This university has about 43 colleges of sciences, 24 colleges of engineering and lot many institutes for commerce and Arts stream. In Nagpur is located the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology or vnit, presently known as NIT, Nagpur, which has gained a name among the 6 of the first Regional Engineering Colleges under the government of India scheme, in collaboration with the state government of Maharashtra and has come up as a nationally important institution.

In Wardha, there is Mahatma Gandhi Sewagram Ashram, which is part of the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya. In the entire world, this is the only university of Hindi and the management is directly under government of India’s control. The chancellor in ex-officio capacity is the Indian President. This university takes in students from different parts of the world. At Wardha, the headquarters of Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti is found. It was Mahatma Gandhi, who laid the foundation of this particular institute, which now has branches all over the world.

Nagpur is supposed to be the centre of India geographically, termed as Zero Mile Stone. This city has been the seat of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, which is a nationalist body of Hindu and also the place for Dalit Buddhist movement. Since the city of Nagpur has largest orange productions in the country, it is known as orange city. In Nagpur, there are other organizations like National Thermal Power Corporation or NTPC western zone, national fire institution and Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti for the spread and promotion of Hindi, which is the national language.

In Maharashtra, PCs are found in about 45% and total number of users of internet is about 50% of that of India.