Bihar govt’s move to attach over 5K schools to nearby institutes violates RTE rules: complaint

The education department, following an order issued by former additional chief secretary (education) Sanjay Kumar in 2019 to ensure full infrastructure in all government-run schools, had decided to attach some of the schools with no land or building to neighbouring schools that have proper premises and to close some of the other schools.

In response to a recent RTI query, BEPC Additional State Project Director (programme) Ravishanker Singh Prakash recently confirmed that there are 5,418 primary and middle schools across the state which do not have their buildings (as they have no land), while the remaining 826 schools have their own premises but more than one school is running from there in shifts.

That prompted Bihar Teacher Eligibility Test Association president Amit Vikram, a schoolteacher, to lodge a complaint last month with BEPC. “It will be an utter violation of the RTE Act to attach such a huge number of schools to existing neighbouring schools, which could put infrastructure pressure on these schools too. On behalf of teachers, students and their guardians, I wanted to know from the government if they had any land acquisition policy for these 5,418 schools. I did not get any satisfactory response as BEPC asked me to wait for 15 days for a detailed reply,” he told The Indian Express.

According to Vikram, several of the 5,418 schools are being run from the premises of the 826 schools. The others, he said, are mostly running from community halls, panchayat bhavans and temple premises in the neighbourhood. “This is happening despite the 2019 order from the education department chief secretary. Nothing has been done despite the matter being flagged from the top office. A devoted land acquisition policy could be the only way out to comply with the RTE norms,” said Vikram.

Bihar primary education director Ravi Prakash on January 13 wrote to BEPC seeking a detailed report on Vikram’s query. “Since there has been a demand for preparing district-wise schools, which are without buildings, and there is also concern around RTE Act non-compliance in case of attaching such schools to neighbouring schools, BEPC has to prepare a detailed list,” he wrote.