Mechanisms in govt schools not enough to ensure quality education: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Friday said it appears that the "existing regulatory mechanism" is not sufficient to ensure quality education in schools controlled or owned by the government or local authorities.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said this while observing that a petition, which has sought that schools owned or controlled by the government or local authorities should obtain a recognition certificate under the RTE Act like the private ones, requires further consideration.

"Though certain details have been furnished in the additional counter affidavit (filed by the Centre) dated August 10, 2016, it appears to us that the existing regulatory mechanism is not sufficient to ensure quality education in schools owned or controlled by the government or the local authorities," the bench said.

"As already expressed in the order dated May 17, 2016, we are also of the view that in the absence of a suitable amendment to section 18 (1) of RTE Act, the object of the RTE Act, more particularly Article 21-A of the Constitution of India, may not be achieved in letter and spirit," it observed.

In its May 17 last year order, the high court had directed the government to file an affidavit furnishing details of the mechanism in place for regulating and monitoring standards in the government schools in terms of the schedule of RTE Act and as to whether the government schools have fulfilled the said norms and standards.

In its order, the bench observed that the Centre's additional affidavit was silent on certain issues and the matter requires further consideration.

The bench has listed the matter for hearing in March this year.

The order came on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO, Independent Thought, which alleged that exclusion of the government-run schools under Section 18(1) of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act from obtaining a recognition certificate, violated the Constitution.

The petitioner had told the court that at present Section 18 of the Act would show that all schools owned or run by the government and/or its agencies have been excluded from the ambit of Sections 18 and 19 of the RTE Act.

The Act, which came into force in April 2010, makes it mandatory for all private schools to seek state government's recognition. The law stipulates that all schools must procure a "recognition certificate" from the government which would be renewable every three years.

Institutions failing to obtain the certificate can be deemed derecognised. Heavy fines can also be slapped on them underprovisions of the Act.