The district school education department on Saturday officially announced that 263 private schools are functioning without the approval of the education department and it has released the list in Coimbatore.
There are 205 play schools, 40 nursery and primary schools, 14 CBSE and four matriculation schools in the list. After officials inspected, 14 CBSE schools and three matriculation schools have applied for the ‘opening license’ from the school education department to run the schools continuously.
Speaking to TNIE, Coimbatore Chief Educational Officer (CEO) R Murugan said, “We have formed 15 teams to find out the unapproved schools in Coimbatore district on May. As per norms, play schools, nursery and primary and matriculation schools should get opening permission from the department before they begin operations. Only then, management should run the schools. In Coimbatore district, we have identified 263 unapproved schools this year. Among them, 17 have applied to get an opening license.”
The list of unapproved schools has been sent to the state education department and district administration. A team will be formed to monitor the activities of these schools, and a show-cause notice will be sent soon. Later, as per department procedure, we will take action to close these schools without affecting the students’ education,” he added.
Murugan also pointed out that ideally, the parents should know whether these schools have received a license or not before the admission. “If parents have any doubt regarding approvals and certification, they can come to Chief Education Office to know more," he stated.
One of the petitioners, SA Rajkumar, state president, TN Art Teachers Welfare Association (TNATWA), said, “For the past few years, many schools have functioned without approval. We urged the department several times to close them down because we didn’t want a tragedy like the Kumbakonam school fire accident.”
He alleged that department officials had not initiated any steps and had to get information about unapproved schools under the RTI Act. “We came to know that there are 170 unapproved schools, and I petitioned the district collector on June 10,” he averred.
He also suggested the department shift the students to nearby schools and then shut the unapproved schools immediately.
When contacted, A Karuppasamy, Director of Elementary Education, said, “We have been taking steps to close unapproved schools in all the districts. Even recently, Tirupur district educational officials closed 18 schools. We will do the same here as well.”
