Dist admin forms sub-committees to counter anomalies in pvt schools

To keep a track record of private schools on approximately 63 parameters like maintenance of school buses, coverage of Right to Education (RTE) norms-2009 including a few other guidelines that must be abided by the private cradles to ensure the safety of school children, over 12 sub-committees have been constituted.

Ranchi SDO Anjali Yadav said that the sub-committee members are collecting the details of private schools by crossing verifying the facts submitted by school managements and through physical certification. The final status of schools will be revealed after March 15. 

“The sub-committee members that comprises of all senior officials like District Transportation Officer, Traffic DSPs, District Education Officer (DEO), District Superintendent of Education (DSE) have been asked to submit their finding latest by March 15. We have also involved the Circle Officers (COs) in this so that private schools functioning in the distant areas also get covered,” Yadav said.

“Since sub-committee members are also physically verifying the facts, hence compilation of consolidated reports about the status of private schools on different parameters is taking time. On 63 check-lists, the facts are being analyzed. 40 points are covered under school bus maintenance while 23 points involves implementation of rules drafted under RTE norms-2009,” the SDO further added.

Besides eyeing on the course of development made by the private school managements to ensure the safety of school kids using buses as primarily mode of transportation, ensuring uploading details of book-lists on the official website of schools, keeping a check on fees hike, the district administration is also implementing Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (COTPA) Act – 2003 guidelines that bans the sale of intoxicated products within 100 yards of school premises.

Meanwhile, when enquired about the strategies prepared by the Traffic DSPs to nab the defaulters, Traffic DSP-1, Dilip Xalxo said, “Responsibility of checking four private school buses has been given to me. The school bus checking drive will begin soon. Taking into account, installation of CCTV cameras, Global Positioning System (GPS), availability of first-aid kit, deputation of bus staff, speed governors will be taken care of primarily during the checking drive.”

Notably, till February 2018, just 30 private schools had submitted the details of school buses maintenance. As per the list available with Ranchi DTO, around 70 private schools or even more at present have bus facilities for the students. Following the decisions taken in December 2017, it was made mandatory for the schools to submit the details of buses including the facilities available inside the buses to the district administration before January 31.

Not just school buses condition puts a question on private school functioning but following other anomalies, uploading rate of book-lists on schools website is enormously low. As per the input of Ranchi DSE, Shivendra Kumar, who recently shared the details of private schools which completed the book-list upload task suggests that monitoring on this front is also required as the result is not very encouraging. Not even a dozen recognized private schools have uploaded the book list details on their respective school websites.