Responding to the petition, an education department official said: “It is known that there is a space crunch in schools in Northeast Delhi since land is a big issue there. We have written several times to the DDA asking that they allot land for additional buildings and schools.” Classes every alternate day or for two hours per day — a PIL in the High Court on behalf of parents of children studying in Delhi government schools in Northeast Delhi has alleged that the schools are not running full-time. The PIL, filed by NGO Social Jurist, states that they have received written complaints from parents of children studying in such schools in Khajuri Khas, Sonia Vihar, Sabhapur and Karawal Nagar.
Bharat Paswan, one of the parents who filed the complaint with the NGO, said his daughter Nisha Kumari, a class VIII student at Government Girls Senior Secondary School Sonia Vihar, is called to the school from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm. “I don’t understand what she must be learning during that time. This includes a lunch break too and some delays here and there. Effectively, there are just two hours of teaching-learning,” he said. The school has 5,666 students.
His daughter used to study in a private school before the pandemic, but he shifted her to this school this year because of financial constraints. “I was not earning enough. I’m a labourer who wants his children to study well but that is just not happening. To make up for this, I’m spending around Rs 700 every month on private tuition for her,” he said.
Nida said her younger brother Faizan has been attending classes only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays since he was admitted to Government Boys Senior Secondary School Sabhapur in class VI a few months ago. “For two years, he did not go to any school, but he joined this one a few months ago. Ever since, he is only called to school thrice a week. The rest of the days, he receives voice recordings from his teacher assigning some work. He mostly plays around on those days,” she said. The school has 2,587 students. Both said when they approached the schools, they were told there is a paucity of space.
The petition alleges that these school hours are in violation of provisions of the Right to Education Act, 2009, which state, “Minimum number of working days/instructional hours in an academic year: (i) two hundred working days for first class to fifth class; (ii) two hundred and twenty working days for sixth class to eighth class; (iii) eight hundred instructional hours per academic year for first class to fifth class; (iv) one thousand instructional hours per academic year for sixth class to eighth class.”
“… on average, 5,000-6,000 students are enrolled in each of the schools. Thus, nearly 1 lakh students enrolled in these schools are facing more or less the same situation. This is an alarming situation where our marginalised students are not getting full attention from Delhi government in education,” states the petition.
Responding to the petition, an education department official said: “It is known that there is a space crunch in schools in Northeast Delhi since land is a big issue there. We have written several times to the DDA asking that they allot land for additional buildings and schools.”
BJP leader and DDA member, Vijender Gupta, claimed this was not the case. “They have never tried to work this out even though there is a lot of local demand for more school space,” he claimed.