VISAKHAPATNAM: On the first day of the new academic year, the Education department officials seized 15 unrecognised schools. The department deployed five special teams to shut down all the unrecognised schools in the district Monday. The teams raided 15 unrecognised schools in the city which have started academic sessions without any permission from the government.
According to the High Court verdict, five years ago the government had directed the district education officials to identify the unrecognised schools in the district. In fact, during the past five years, the department has been issuing notices to the managements of the unrecognised schools and every year the department has been announcing the list of unrecognised schools. The department has also been cautioning parents not to admit their children into the unrecognised schools. However, for reasons best known to the parents, they are admitting their children into those schools. This year also, the district education department has identified 230 unrecognised schools in the district and issued notices to the managements. According to the directions, the department has to register criminal cases against the managements.
District Education Officer (DEO) MV Krishna Reddy asked the unrecognised school managements not to admit students this year and directed them to shut down. The DEO also deployed five special teams to raid and seize the unrecognised schools. However, ignoring the notices, the unrecognised school managements started the academic session as usual after the summer vacation Monday. “Our teams raided and seized 15 unrecognised schools on Monday. The special teams will continue their raids till they complete their task and will register criminal cases against the managements. The parents must verify if the school is recognized by the government before admitting their children,” the DEO said. According to the education department, there are 66 primary schools and 74 high schools which are not recognised by the government. There are another 50 unrecognised upper primary schools which run classes VIII to X without any permission. The special teams advised these school managements to shut down their institutions voluntarily to avoid criminal cases. “According to the directions, this year no single unrecognised school will be tolerated. If a school is seized during the raids it will be a criminal offence,” said an official of the special teams.
