Illegal schools face action from Monday
The school education department is set to launch a special drive against unrecognised schools in Hyderabad from Monday.
The move follows a large number of complaints against unrecognised schools that have given admissions in the new academic year without necessary approval from the government.Unlike in the past, the officials will visit these schools and give the authorities the “closure notices”. Such notices were earlier sent by post, and the schools allegedly “managed” the postal staff to ensure that they were returned to the department citing “wrong address”, it is learnt.
Several big schools, many of them backed by corporate bodies, have set up unauthorised branches, even though they got permission for a single school at a particular location.
While the drive is in the offing, it is alleged that officials have turned a blind eye even as admissions begun way back in March. The government teachers’ unions allege that the department is not serious about addressing the issue of unrecognised schools, and that special drives taken up before the start of each session are only an eyewash aimed to collect bribes from the managements.
The Hyderabad district administration identified 231 unrecognised schools in the city in December 2011, but the teachers’ unions put the number at over 700.
Apart from uploading the details of unrecognised schools on www.deohyderabad.com, the department has failed to check the offenders from making fresh admissions, it said.
The RTE Act makes it mandatory for schools to get approval from the government. The school managements are liable to a penalty of Rs 1 lakh if they fail to secure approval in three years. If they still continue without recognition, the penalty is Rs 10,000 per day under the RTE norms. But with officials of the Education department turning a blind eye in most cases, RTE rules have remained mostly on paper.
Mr Susheendra Rao, in-charge DEO, Hyderabad, said: “Under RTE Act, all schools have to mandatorily seek recognition within three years. Despite remin-ders, unrecognised schools have failed to apply for recognition. This is the final academic year (2012-13) to seek recognition.”
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