Child rights panel asks Maharashtra govt to submit report on unauthorised schools

The chairperson of the commission, Susieben Shah, said, “No school can be allowed to function without the RTE Act approval. We are duty bound to ask the information from the government to ensure safety of children which is ensured with RTE compliance.”

At a time when state government is already looking at reviewing the parameters so that some of the unauthorised schools from urban localities are not closed only on technicalities, Shah said, “It has to be debated whether state can bring such relaxations to a parliamentary act, just to accommodate schools which are not meeting the requisite approval parameters.”

In the recently concluded Assembly session, the state government’s education department had announced that it will review the parameters used for approval of schools, especially for schools running in slum areas of urban localities. Earlier this year, as the government started cracking down on unauthorised schools, owners of several such schools from Mumbai had come together under a federation demanding a compassionate view as parameters such as available land, ground etc are impossible to meet in city slums.

Parent activist Nitin Dalvi, who approached the commission, said, “The schools have to be held responsible for running without the required approval for so long. But the administration is not taking it seriously.”