With RTE, we will now run middle schools: New mayor

City’s new Mayor Prithvi Raj Sawhney on Friday said the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will get to run the middle schools (class V to VIII) with the implementation of Right to Education (RTE) Act.

The MCD runs only primary schools while the Delhi state government runs middle, secondary and higher secondary schools in Delhi. Sawhney said the MCD had around 400 middle schools and 11 secondary schools under it till the 1970s.

“Then there was a division…we were to run primary schools while the state was to run middle and secondary schools. But then, there was a breach of trust and the government opened Sarvodaya schools,” Sawhney, who headed the MCD’s Education Committee before being elected as Mayor, said.

“Now with the RTE, the MCD would get to run the middle schools again,” he added.

The Right of children to free and compulsory Education Act or the RTE Act guarantees elementary education (up to Class VIII) to every child between 6-14 years of age.

State governments are supposed to ensure that every child has access to neighbourhood schools (within one km for primary and three km for middle school).

The new Mayor also promised that all the Commonwealth Games related projects taken up by the civic body would be completed by May 30. “I will personally monitor all the CWG-related sites. I am confident, the work will be over by May 30,” he said.

He also assured that Delhi would be neat and clean and also green ahead of the Commonwealth Games.