78 unrecognised schools continue operations in Chandigarh

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, April 8

While the new academic session has begun, there are 78 unrecognised schools with a strength of over 15,000 students continuing in the city, right under the nose of the officials of the UT Education Department. Inspections of these schools conducted year after year have failed to bring in results.

Thirteen such schools had shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite the Advisory Council Committee recommending the assessment of these schools under the Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009, no concrete steps have been taken by the authorities to date.

The matter has been hanging fire for more than seven years and was first raised by local MP Kirron Kher in Parliament in 2015. The Education Department then began an exercise of inspecting unrecognised schools for

the purpose of granting recognition. So far, five rounds have been conducted since 2016 by officials.

President, Rural Education Welfare Association, VB Kapil said he had recently requested the UT Education Department to continue with the process of granting recognition to schools that were deemed fit under the RTE rules. “Many of our children who had gone to government schools during Covid-19 for free rations have started coming back to us. The schools have again started functioning fully,” he said.

In 2019, the department had also “named and shamed” 91 unrecognised schools along with their addresses in the public domain. As per preliminary reports of inspections carried previously, 24 unrecognised schools are being shortlisted for recognition, while the others are running with impunity. These lack safety measures and do not meet many other conditions.

Director, School Education, UT, Palika Arora said, “The matter related to inspection of unrecognised schools is under process. We have started door-to-door campaigning so that more students are enrolled in our government schools.”

Plan comes a cropper

In 2019, the UT Education Department had chalked out a plan according to which more than 3,340 students from 37 unrecognised schools were to be adjusted in government schools and 24 schools were to be shortlisted for recognition.

Problems with unrecognised schools

• Institutions not walled or guarded well
• Stairs, ramps not wide enough for evacuation in emergency
• Not accessible by fire brigade
• No fire hydrants located nearby
• No first aid boxes installed
• No windows in most classrooms
• No proper arrangements for potable water
• Liquor shops situated around schools
• No playgrounds
• No computer labs

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