Call to close down all unrecognised schools

CHENNAI: Even as the controversy over the death of three girl students of SVS medical college of Naturopathy and Yoga which had inadequate infrastructure is yet to die down, educationists demanded withdrawal of temporary recognition given to 746 private schools which do not have minimum required land.

V. Vasanthi Devi, former Vice-Chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, said, “The government order which gave the temporary recognition says five lakh students are studying in 746 unrecognised schools. How can it be possible for a government to allow students to study in unrecognised schools? As per the Right to Education Act, there should not be any unrecognised school. “But the Tamil Nadu government gave the extension to private schools which do not have the minimum land as per the order. These students should be shifted to nearby government, government-aided and private schools,” she said.

“Though the SVS medical college did not have any facilities, the issue came to light only after the suicide of three students. We do not want any such incident to happen again. These unrecognised schools need to be closed immediately,” says senior educationist S.S. Rajagopal. A. Narayanan, director of Change India, a centre for advocacy and research, said, “There are attempts by the school education department officials to secretly regularise all irregularities and violations of these schools. The process is underway at high speed to issue recognition to these schools, even as the term of the government is coming to an end.”