A million Delhi students to suffer as government cracks down on illegal practices

• As many as 700 above primary schools in Delhi — that are running without recognition — will close down.
  
• There are roughly 3,000 unrecognised schools in the city, accommodating over a million students every year, according to Delhi State Public Schools Management Association.
  
• It is also planning to identify those recognised institutions that are functioning beyond their level of recognition, to keep the illegal practices in check.

As many as 700 above-primary schools in Delhi — that are running without recognition — will close down.

The Directorate of Education (DoE) said that these unrecognised schools violated Section 18 of the Rights to Education Act. It states that no school — other than those under the local government authority — shall function without acquiring the certificate of recognition.

The unrecognised primary schools will be identified by the municipal corporation.

“District DDEs should issue notices of closure to all unrecognised schools running middle class and above. The private school branch will share with DDEs a list of more than 700 unrecognised schools running in different localities of Delhi,” a DoE official told TOI.

However, there are roughly 3,000 unrecognised schools in the city, accommodating over a million students every year, according to Delhi State Public Schools Management Association. This is despite the government warning to seek recognition or halt admission from the next academic session (2018-19).

In fact, the government is also cracking down on the illegal practices in government recognised schools. “Such schools should be issued a show-cause notice for withdrawal of recognition and dealt with sternly,” it said.

The crisis

The Delhi Economic Survey 2018-19 shows that the government schools in the city still lag in terms of learning outcomes. It highlighted that the student-teacher ratio across Delhi schools stood at 80 — which is against RTE guidelines.

In addition to this, the Delhi School Education norms state that the recognition to schools will be according to the geographic location — keeping a check with other schools in the locality to as to maintain the enrollment ratio.

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