Schools that violated norms in panic, trying to divert attention: Nagesh

Close on the heels of contractors accusing the government and its people of taking cuts, associations of private schools have complained of corruption in the education department. School Education & Literacy Minister B C Nagesh talks to DH’s Rashmi Belur on what he is doing to make his department transparent and accountable.

Excerpts:

Are corruption allegations against your department true?

In the past few years, corruption has expanded its wings and isn’t restricted to one particular department. If I say there’s no corruption, then I’ll become a hypocrite. There’s no department without corruption. Corruption means not just money; people have become ‘mentally’ corrupt. I don’t accept the claim that the entire department is corrupt. Yes, there are a few corrupt officers and we’re trying to eliminate corruption.

How will you address corruption in your department?

I can’t control each and every officer at the block-level. We’re planning to constitute a commission, probably headed by a retired IAS officer or a former judge. We’ll discuss it with the CM soon. The commission will receive complaints on corruption, inquire and submit reports. Based on the reports, we’ll initiate action against the officials concerned. We’re thinking of a commission as those who are making allegations have failed to provide proof.

Can we expect reforms to clean up the system?

We’re bringing in several reforms, mainly to avoid corruption at the local level. Now, a majority of procedures like getting fresh affiliation and renewal are online. No BEO should sit on an application for more than 3 days, in which case it gets moved to a higher officer. We’re also transferring BEOs facing allegations or complaints. For RTE admissions, we’re making Aadhaar-linking compulsory. This has irked some schools.

Can you confirm that some files regarding No Objection Certificates given to schools under various boards have gone missing?

I won’t say ‘missing,’ but there are no documents available or files were not created for some schools that got affiliation from other boards, by submitting the NOC from the state. Normally, files move from the lower-level and in this case, we suspect there are irregularities as there are no files available. We issued notices to schools, but they failed to reply with relevant documents. We’re conducting an inquiry and action will be initiated against erring schools and officials. We suspect a bigger scam.

How many unauthorised schools are operating?

Verification is going on. There are over 54 unauthorised schools identified in Bengaluru Urban. An FIR is filed against two schools and some schools are closed. This has panicked schools that violated the norms. This is why some schools are trying to divert attention in the name of corruption.

How can parents find out the genuineness of a school?

The list of schools will be published in public domain. Boards will be put up in front of the schools. We’re waiting for a report from all the districts to make these details public. Alternative arrangements will be made for children in unauthorised schools by shifting them to neighbouring schools.

Why wasn’t action taken against unauthorised schools all these years?

There were efforts in the past. We’re focusing on providing quality education, and we’re serious about irregularities. There are some schools cheating and harassing parents. It’s really shocking to know that some of them have state board affiliation, but teach CBSE syllabus. Some have permission to teach Kannada medium, but are following the English medium. All such illegal practices need to end. During my district visits, some schools were caught cheating on the number of students - not even 50 per cent of kids enrolled were present.

How did the department unearth a scam in teachers’ recruitment conducted in 2014-15?

An anonymous letter led us to a bigger scam. A few months ago, we received a complaint against one teacher’s appointment, which was proven in an internal inquiry. This forced us to suspect a bigger scam and we decided to hand it over to CID.