The criminal case filed by the Department of Public Instruction against a private school in Jalahalli — where a three-year-old was allegedly raped — for running classes illegally, has put the spotlight on more such schools that are functioning without obtaining the required permission.
A visit by The Hindu to some of the 81 schools in Bangalore, which were declared “unauthorised” for various violations in the beginning of the academic year, revealed that many still continue to run.
While some of these schools shut down after cases were filed against them in the jurisdictional police station, others continue to function — one such example in Govindarajanagar.
When this correspondent visited the school, a representative said, “We are in the process of obtaining documents.”
The DPI is yet to collate the action-taken report regarding unauthorised schools from the officials.
Mulla Halli Suri, president of Parents’ Association, said the 81 schools were just the tip of the iceberg and more such schools continued to function.
The Indian Human Rights and Anti Corruption Cell on Monday alleged that seven chains of schools were functioning illegally. An attempt in January by Right to Information activist, retired Wing Commander G.B. Athri, to get details on these violations has not yielded results. His RTI query had sought to know the number of sanctions accorded to start Kannada-medium schools in and around Bangalore, the number of No-Objection Certificates issued to schools to offer CBSE and ICSE syllabi, the number of Kannada-medium private schools, and reports of annual spot inspections conducted by the department officials. Despite the deadline of the Karnataka Information Commission’s order to furnish all details in 45 days having passed on October 20, the Education Department has not acted upon it. Instead, letters have been circulated within the department, passing the buck on each other.
Only one Block Education Officer from Anekal replied that 23 of the 25 schools affiliated to the central board had NOCs. The department officials said they were yet to ascertain whether the two schools are illegal.
Wg. Cmdr. Athri alleged that the unwillingness of the department officials to part with details showed that they were hand in glove with school managements. The most common violation is of the State’s language policy, according to which the medium of instruction in lower primary classes should be the child’s mother tongue or Kannada. But many private schools, which on record are Kannada-medium schools, are functioning as English-medium schools.
The department officials pleaded helplessness as the issue was in court until recently. After the Supreme Court quashed the State government’s review petition on the language policy judgement, private school managements had asked schools to convert their status as English-medium schools.
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