After school wall collapse, eight illegal ones shut

NOIDA: The basic education department has shut down eight schools in several villages of Dankaur, Yakubpur and Kasna in Gautam Budh Nagar district in the past two days for operating without permission.

The schools, set up by local traders, had been operating to rake in profits by charging fees. Each of the schools had at least 100 students in them.

The schools that were shut down on Thursday and Friday were Jeevan Jyothi Public School in Dadha; Prayag Public School, Sai Public School and CBS Public School in Yakubpur; City Public School in Kasna; and JP School in Dankaur’s Jatta village. The names of two more schools that were shut down are yet to be announced by the education department.

The drive follows the death of two Class I students last week after the wall of an unauthorised school in Sector 101 collapsed on children writing an exam in the open. KM Public School, where the accident took place, had been shut down last year. But it reopened after a few months under a different name.

Bal Mukund Prasad, the basic siksha adhikari, said the exercise to weed out illegal operators would continue over the next few weeks. The education department has formed two teams of four members each to inspect schools on a daily basis. Officials said there were many schools that were affiliated to some board or the other but did not have the permits to operate.

Officials in the education department said they had come across several schools that had reopened with a different name after being ordered to shut down, like the one where the accident happened.

“We have informed all departments concerned in the district that while schools operating without licences will be shut down immediately, those trying to reopen schools after being told to shut could face legal action,” Prasad said.