CHENNAI: A writ plea, filed in Madras High Court for a directive to the government to close down all unrecognized CBSE and ICSE schools in the State and make arrangements to admit the students in recognized neighbourhood government/government-aided or unaided schools, came up for hearing before the vacation Bench of Justices KK Sasidharan and S Vimala on Wednesday.
The Bench ordered notice to the authorities concerned and posted the matter for June 1 before the first Bench.
The PIL filed by A Narayanan, director of CHANGE India, a social service organisation, stated that it was the Government’s responsibility to ensure that no school was built in the State without getting the plan approval from the statutory planning authorities.
This was to prevent mushrooming of unrecognized and illegal schools which not only offered sub-standard and poor quality education but also exploited the ignorant parents and their children financially.
Narayanan had filed a PIL last year to close down all the 746 unrecognised private schools in the State and to transfer the students to some other recognised schools in the same area. When the matter came up before the first Bench presided over by Chief Justice SK Kaul, the Bench was informed that the schools had been granted recognition as a one time measure till the end of the current academic year, i.e. May 31 this year. Recording this, the Bench disposed of the PIL in March last.
However, no step had been taken any step to close down the 746 schools and to transfer the students. In his present PIL, Narayanan prayed to the court to direct the government to declare openly the names of all the 746 or more schools which remain unrecognised as on May 31 by uploading the list in the school directorate website, and restrain them from admitting any new student to any class for the academic year 2016-17. The PIL prayed for closure of all unrecognized schools, and make arrangements to admit students in other recognized government/government-aided or unaided schools.