Sisodia asks MCDs to take schools seriously

Sending a strong message to lethargic bureaucrats, Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday said the new government will not tolerate any delay in granting ‘no objection certificates’ for opening new schools.

He said the education department is his priority and he will do everything possible to make it. He also announced to launch a helpline number for parents during nursery admissions for complaints against private schools.

“Some bureaucrats have complained that municipal corporations take months to approve a map for any school. I will chair a meeting with the commissioners of all the three corporations regarding this. If the corporations continue to delay in granting NOCs, we will scrap the powers of the corporations in opening schools,” he told Deccan Herald.

Sisodia said the helpline will be directly under his control and it will be launched before January 15. He will also seek review and feedback from MCD commissioners on poor infrastructural and educational conditions of primary schools run by MCDs.

“We will try to restore confidence among students and teachers. Better facilities in schools will attract more students and their parents. We have to work on basic amenities such as cleanliness, drinking water, toilets and buildings for government-run schools,” he said.

Warning government school teachers over their poor performance, he said the attitude of teachers will be changed strictly.

He said teachers usually say “Yahan aise he log padhane aate hain (only the children of poor people come here).”

“We are going to tell teachers that the government pays them to the children of poor people only,” he said.

On his plans of making nursery admissions transparent, he said his agenda is to make it parent-friendly.

“We will ask private schools to make a chart and post it online on their websites. We will ask them to identify the radius of their geographical area of six to eight kilometres accurately, put the fee details and the number of students in every class clearly on the websites so that parents should be able to compare,” he said.

“If they fail to do so, we will seek legal action against them. We have enough rules to keep a tab on these overcharging schools. We just have to implement them properly,” he added.