HYDERABAD: Thousands of students are staring at an academic year ahead, as the Commissioner and Director of School Education crackdown on erring private schools.
In what may be the largest clampdown of its kinds in its history, the department has directed for the shutting down of as many as 171 unrecognised private schools in Hyderabad district, starting June 12 and 13.
Of these, 89 are high schools and 82 upper primary and primary schools.
Parents who have already paid the fee, bought books and uniforms, are left distraught. With admissions complete in all private schools, they are also worried about their children’s future.
According to the District Education Officer, Hyderabad, B Venkata Narasamma, the administration’s decision to clampdown the unregulated schools comes in the aftermath of the problems it faced last year. She told Express that students enrolled in these schools would be shifted to government schools or other private ones.
Are all 171 schools unrecognised?
For any school to start functioning, it has to obtain Permission to Operate (PTO) without which, schools are considered to function illegally. It has been alleged that along with schools that have not obtained the PTO, several others that have the requisite permission, have also been listed.
Some of the schools are on the list for lack of securing a fire NOC. “These schools have been functioning for years now after getting their PTO and showing good results. Only their ETR (Extension of Temporary Registration) is pending due to non-availability of NOCs, particularly the fire NOC. These schools have also been listed even though they can’t be called unauthorised as this will create a lot of chaos among parents and students and spoil the goodwill of the schools,” S Madhusudhan Reddy, president of Telangana Recognised Schools Management Association (TRSMA) told Express.
Madhusudhan Reddy further added that some schools whose ETR expires in the next couple of years have also found a place in the list.
There are over 410 schools in the GHMC limits which have a pending ETR. And every year 400-500 more schools have their names added to the list.
Chaos in the making
But parents are not very impressed with the plans. “It is not like these schools have cropped up overnight. If the department was so serious about regulations then it should have done this months ago or at least at the end of the previous academic year so that parents would have got some time to think things through.
With fees paid, admissions done, uniforms bought, the dept wakes up to shut down schools. This will only create more problems than it will resolve,” said Nagati Narayana, president of Telangana Parents Association. Pvt schools associations have also found faults with the list of schools branded ‘unrecognised’.