Noida government schools open or close? Official clarifies after CJP's Saurav Das makes big claim

While inspecting the government schools in Noida, CJP's Saurav Das appealed the youth to audit government schools in their respective areas.

A team of the Cockroach Janta Party reached a school in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddha Nagar on Tuesday as part of their ‘School Theek Karo’ campaign. Later, the pressure group's co-convener Saurav Das claimed that following inspection of just one school, all government schools in the district were ordered to be shut “immediately”.

Saurav Das said that their aim is to show the conditions of schools where children of the country are studying. (File Photo/ANI)

“All government schools in Gautam Buddha Nagar in UP have been directed to be CLOSED immediately. This is after we inspected just ONE SCHOOL in Noida,” Das posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.

"What is the UP government trying to hide?" he asked.

“All schools in the district are open as of now. There is no such notice of closure," an official from DIOS' office said, HT has learnt.

District's basic education officer called Das' claims “misleading” and “completely false” and “categorically denied” them.

“All government-run schools in Gautam Buddh Nagar are being operated as per the timetable prescribed by the government and the education department, and no order has been issued regarding the closure of any school,” said a statement from his office.

Das told HT that their team was denied entry in any other school after they inspected the first one and claimed that a principal told them they had orders from senior officials to do so.

“We had plans to visit five schools, but we were allowed to visit only one primary school in Garhi Chaukhandi. Everywhere else, we were denied entry. The principal at the school told us that they had received an order from above not to give us access,” Das said.

‘Go out and audit schools’

While inspecting the schools in Noida, an exercise the pressure group has taken in several parts of the country so far, Das made an appeal to the youth, asking them to audit government schools in their respective areas.

“Today, we’ve come to Noida. We’re going to audit some schools here as part of our 'School Theek Karo' campaign. We’ll see the conditions in which children are studying. Noida is one of the better districts in UP, so hopefully, the school conditions will be good too. Whatever the situation is, we’ll show you the reality,” Das said while talking to the media.

He added that their aim is to show the conditions of schools where children of the country are studying.

"We want young people from UP to go out and audit schools as well—to show what condition the schools in their neighbourhoods are in and what kind of education children are receiving. Today, we’re planning to visit schools in Noida, but we’d encourage other young people to take on this responsibility too and audit schools in their own areas..." Das added.

Cockroach Janta Party began as a political satirical outfit that led the student protest Jantar Mantar and forced the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as education minister over irregularities in NEET-UG exam. The outfit has now become a pressure group with education as its main focus and launched the ‘School Theek Karo’ campaign nationwide.

(With inputs from Asmita Seth)