Gurdaspur, March 18
The district administration has been caught between the proverbial devil and the deep sea as far as implementing the mandatory Right to Education (RTE) act is concerned as on the one hand schools are not coming forward to get themselves affiliated with the District Education Officer (DEO), Primary, while on the other hand officials are feeling the pinch from politicians and influential people who own these schools.

Nearly 600 private schools of this district have been asked by the administration to get themselves affiliated with the DEO (Primary) so that the RTE act can be implemented in these schools. The act provides for compulsory education to children between the age of 6 and 14 and requires all private schools to reserve 25% of seats for children from poor families,? said an education board official.

However, in this district out of 600 odd private schools, 400 have got themselves affiliated till March 12, the last date for getting registered. The remaining 200 schools, a majority of which have been termed as “teaching shops” by educational experts, have yet to get themselves affiliated forcing the district administration to prepare an action plan. The plan envisages these ‘erring’ schools to be closed and their students shifted to government schools.

Deputy Commissioner Abhinav Trikha admitted that it was an onerous task to close these schools and shift students enrolled in them. “I have asked the DEO (Primary) to give them another chance to get affiliated. However, if they do not adhere by the government norms, we will have no option except to shift their students,” he said.

There is another angle to this problem which is disturbing officials. “If one private school, on an average has 100 students, there will be at least 20,000 students who will be required to be shifted to government schools. Here arises the problem because these schools have no infrastructure to adjust the new students. Things in primary schools, where the RTE has to be implemented, are really in a bad shape,“ said a senior education department officer.

A majority of the private schools are being owned by influential people, including middle-rung politicians of the area. Sources reveal that these people are putting tremendous pressure on administration officials to restrain themselves from forcing the schools to get affiliated.

The owners of private schools are not too happy at the “rigid” manner in which the RTE act is being implemented. Said a school principal, “The first big unanswered question relates to the fate of children from the weaker sections after they complete their free elementary education in the elite schools, where the tuition fee would be more than the annual income of their parents. Predictably, these children will have to leave these schools and slip back to schools of questionable standards, which is bound to be psychologically traumatic,” he remarked.