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Won’t allow civic bodies to shut any school: Sisodia
New Delhi: Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Friday met representatives of non-recognised private schools and assured them the government will not close
New Delhi: Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia on Friday met representatives of non-recognised private schools and assured them the government will not close any school in the city.
The meeting took place a day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijendra Gupta wrote to Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal requesting him to order the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to keep its decision of shutting down 700 unrecognised schools in the Capital in abeyance for a period of two years.
The Directorate of Education (DoE) had last month identified 700 schools running without recognition. These schools are above primary level and come under the jurisdiction of Delhi’s three municipal corporations. While officials at the three civic bodies said that the process of recognition of these schools is underway, the DoE has decided to issue closure notice to these schools.
However, Sisodia said the AAP believes in opening schools and not “closing them”. “I want to tell parents and teachers of children studying in these schools that you should not worry. All these schools come under the BJP-ruled municipal corporations. The government will not allow the municipal corporations to close any school,” he said.
As per the Rights to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, no school can be established without obtaining a certificate of recognition from the government or the local authority. The Delhi government had last year given a final opportunity to these schools to seek recognistion or shut down.
Meanwhile, officials at the DoE said it will be difficult for the government to allow such schools to operate in the city. “These schools do not fulfill minimum standards required to operate; many of these do not meet the minimum area requirement, adequate number of classrooms and teacher-student ratio. Some of them are found to be issuing certificates of non-recognised boards to students. We are not sure if these schools can be allowed to operate,” said a DoE official, requesting anonymity.
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