NEW DELHI: Finding shortage of student strength in the classrooms, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Friday ordered the closure of 30 ‘evening shift’ schools and issued directions to the zonal heads to merge them in the morning shift. According to the order, all zonal deputy director education and assistant director education have been directed to submit a compliance report to the MCD’s education department by August 20.
The order issued on August 9 stated, “Commissioner MCD vide his order has accorded administrative approval for merger of 30 schools and re-naming them. All the Zonal DDEs/ ADEs have been directed to merge the schools and submit the proposal for transfer/adjustment of surplus teaching and non-teaching staff to the administration branch.”
Ramniwas Solanki, MCD Teachers association head said, “This is a good initiative as infrastructure was being wasted and students were forced to come in the evening.”
Two years ago, the number of schools had come down to 1,535 in 2022 from 1,660 in 2018 even when the enrolment had risen. Several experts called the process “merging and closure”. Vikas Tripathi, the then director of education had shared that no schools were closed or merged due to dip in enrolment and it was just done to ensure resources are optimally utilized.