A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court Wednesday against unauthorized and unrecognized play schools in the capital, contending these are posing danger to the small kids taking admission there.
NGO Social Jurist moved the court, saying that the court's 2008 order that no unrecognized school be allowed to run in Delhi, the city state's directorate of education (DoE) have done nothing to ensure this, resulting in "continuous existence and mushrooming of hundreds of unauthorized, unsafe and unrecognized play schools and pre-primary schools in Delhi".
The plea, filed through advocate Ashok Agarwal and Khagesh Jha, said that some action-taken reports were submitted in the court but it was silent as to what action the directorate propose to take against such schools that had not applied for recognition and were still continuing to function.
It said that the directorate last year had invited applications for recognition of schools running classes up to the elementary level but said that as pre-primary schools are not covered under the Right to Education Act, these schools can continue to function.
"The DoE by its circular dated March 22, 2013 invited applications from all such unrecognized schools situated in unauthorized/undeveloped/unregularized colonies, running classes up to the elementary level for grant of recognition but has specifically stated that schools running classes only up to the pre-primary levels are not covered under the RTE Act, 2009 and as such, can continue to function till furthers orders or instructions issued in this regard," it said.
Allowing pre-primary and nursery schools to continue to run without obtaining recognition is "illegal", it added.
In 2008, the high court had asked the government to frame a scheme for regularising and regulating these unregistered institutions.
