746 matric schools to close after May 31 in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: About 746 matriculation schools in the state will face the threat of closure, as the state government on Monday informed the Madras high court that the temporary conditional recognition granted to them till May 31, 2016, was an one time measure and there was no chance for further extension.

Counsel for the school education department stated this on instructions from the Superintendent of the office of the Matriculation Schools, who was present in the court, when a PIL from CHANGE India by its director A. Narayanan came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M. M. Sundresh.

Narayanan sought to quash a GO dated August 18, 2015 of the school education secretary and consequently to forbear the authorities from granting recognition against law to unrecognized schools not fulfilling the norms specified in various GOs and the judgment of the Supreme Court and ensure that all the unrecognized schools were closed by the end of the academic year 2015-16 and to ensure that the students in such schools were placed in other neighbourhood government/government aided/unaided schools so as to enable them to continue their education in recognized schools.

Closing the petition, the bench In its order said the grievance of the petitioner was that unrecognized schools were continuing by adhoc extensions and the last such thing being granted under the GO in question up to the end of the academic year 2015-16. The counter affidavit filed by the authorities stated that an expert committee was constituted under G.O dated March 5, 2013 under the chairmanship of Director of School Education for fixing the minimum land requirement of private schools. On this aspect the opinion of the heads of department on the recommendations of the committee has been sought, which was yet to be received and it was affirmed that on receipt of the same, it will be suitably acted upon by the government, the bench added.

The bench said in paragraph 39, it has been categorically averred that after 746 matriculation schools who were granted temporary conditional recognition till May 31, 2016 as an one time measure pending final decision to be taken by the government on the report submitted by the expert committee, there was no chance of further extension as it was only one time measure. “On our enquiry, this position is once again affirmed by the counsel for the Respondents (authorities) on instructions from K Venkatesan, superintendent of the office of the Matriculation Schools, who was present in the court. We take the aforesaid on record. Petition is closed in the aforesaid terms”, the bench added.