Coimbatore district school education department found that around 200 nursery and primary schools are functioning without adequate land, which is 16.5 cents (approximately 7,000 square feet).
Coimbatore District Educational Officer (DEO) for the private school, R Geetha said, "One of the regulations mentioned in the Tamil Nadu Private Schools (Regulation), 2023 issued in January, is that a nursery or a primary school should have at least 16.5 cents of land (traditional unit of land measurement which continues to be in usage in few parts of Southern Indian) to function while the earlier norm was to have a minimum of 60 cents," as per a report by The New Indian Express.
"However, many nursery and primary schools started classes despite having enough land under the condition that they would expand the land in the future. Most of these schools failed to keep the promise and are functioning with land space from 5 to 7 cents," she added.
"Recently, the department found that out of 245 nursery and primary schools in Coimbatore, around 200 schools are functioning without adequate land space. As an initial step, we would issue a show cause notice to those schools seeking an explanation about the land. Based on their replies, further action will be taken," Geetha said further, as per TNIE.
All Private School Welfare Association President Mayadevi Shankar shared, "Schools are entitled to follow the norms issued by the school education department. However, as the regulations are implemented now, the school education department should give a period of a minimum of one year to those schools to expand the land. If the department tries to enforce the regulation immediacy, it might affect the smooth functioning of the school."
Meanwhile, KR Nandakumar, General Secretary of TN Nursery, Matriculation and CBSE Schools Association denied the findings and informed that the new regulation is only applicable to new schools, not to already functioning ones, as per TNIE.
