Parents beware: Chennai dist has 331 unrecognized schools
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:18.06.2019

The Chennai district collectorate on Monday released the list of 331 schools functioning without government recognition. Collector A Shanmuga Sundaram advised parents not to admit their children in any of these unrecognized schools.

The list includes Kidzee Play School in Ashok Nagar, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Vidya Mandir in West Mambalam and American Kidz International Montessori Education in Velachery.

Many other schools admitted students claiming they were affiliated to the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) or were recognised by the state directorate for elementary education.

Earlier, a list of 25 unrecognised schools in Tiruvallur district was released.

These 350 schools are among the 760 schools across the state that are facing closure for not obtaining recognition.

A school must obtain building stability certificate from the local bodies, fire safety certificate and no objection certificate (NOC) from the health department to be eligible for recognition. Along with this, it should meet the minimum land requirements — 33 cents in Greater Chennai Corporation limit — set by the government to apply for recognition.

Recently, students from a private school that claimed to have CBSE affiliation were not able to take up their annual exams. Authorities came to know about violations only in the last minute. No school is allowed to operate without obtaining recognition from the respective state governments. It should be renewed every three years, according to the RTE Act, 2009.

To avoid this, the state school education department had in April formed district-level committees to inspect schools and update the recognition process. During the process, the committee based in Chennai found that these 331 schools didn’t meet the eligibility criteria and recommended that they be shut before the start of the academic year.