Unrecognised Schools – Help or Hurt the Poor?

Implications of the Delhi High Court Judgement on Unrecognised Schools
 
27 March 2008, Constitution Club, New Delhi, 3 pm to 6 pm

KEY POINTS

Advocate Ashok Agarwal mentioned that he had found that NGOs running schools were admitting only those students who were not going to government schools. The Chandla Committee had recommended that all private schools should be regulated. Some unrecognised schools are misleading the parents into believing that they are recognised. Unrecognised schools have weak infrastructure and are unsafe They employ unqualified and underpaid teachers which according to the Supreme Court is anti-national. Due to this parallel system attention is not being paid to government schools. To accommodate students affected by closing down of private unrecognised schools, the government should open new schools. We are not thinking about the rights of the children.

Advocate. R. M. Sinha pointed out that the issue of unrecognised schools is primarily of middle schools i.e. upto class eighth. The Delhi School Education Act, 1973 deals with all kinds of schools including unrecognised schools. No one is against better infrastructure for unrecognised schools but it is not affordable. The norms for recognition have to be relaxed as times have changed. The implementation of the judgement is very difficult. The government does not have funds to provide the number of required schools. The schools may be closed down but not before alternate arrangement is made.

Mr. T.K. Mathew, who has 28 years of experience in running schools for the poor mentioned that he has seen student develop well in unrecognised schools. A feedback he got on the judgement was that it is anti-poor and the poor children will be condemned to menial jobs due to unsatisfactory education. There are 1.9 million students in Delhi that are out of schools. The government does not have the resources to provide schools to them. The private schools have been filling the gap. The per pupil expenditure in government schools is Rs. 1444/-, most of which goes into teachers’ salaries. Even the government schools are not able to follow the norms in the Delhi School Education Act. Why should the private schools be forced to do so? Is this not discrimination? Education needs to be freed from the all these regulations.

Mr. R.C Jain, who himself runs a school in Delhi mentioned that private schools are doing a service to the society and they should not be treated as criminals. The government does not have enough schools for the poor. It is impractical to follow the norms under the Delhi School Education Act.

Dr. Jisnu Das presented a research that established that the learning outcomes in the private schools are better than that in government schools. There is no justification to close down private schools.

Dr. Parth Shah pointed out that every individual has a right to choose the education institution for his or her child. All schools must be registered with the government but recognition should be an option and not a compulsion. Would the High Court order also require the closure of Madrasas which are providing education but largely unrecognised? Recognition norms should be equally applicable to government schools as well. Government may prepare a Report Card of all schools and rank them, so that parents have a informed choice.