HRD must go for realistic planning, says Parliamentary panel

New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has recommended that the Union human resources development ministry should go for “realistic” planning and expedite efforts to streamline the process of granting recognition to schools in a time-bound manner. It also pointed out that norms and standards of the RTE Act for providing recognition of private schools and the additional conditions imposed by the state governments were “onerous and unrealistic.”

“The committee is dismayed to note that for developing a transparent mechanism and adequate safeguards for recognition of a school, a substantial time has already elapsed in finding a viable solution, devoid of red-tapism, to the problem. “The HRD ministry should go for realistic planning and expedite its efforts to streamline the process of granting “certificate of recognition” in consultation with the respective state governments to consider the granting of recognition to government schools in a time-bound manner,” the panel said in its report. The committee had earlier pointed out that a large number of private schools all over the country had been closed for non-compliance of norms laid down in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE  Act) which in turn had resulted in the  deprivation of a larger number of children of their right to education.

“The norms and standards of the RTE Act for providing recognition of private schools and the additional conditions imposed by the state governments were “onerous” and “unrealistic”, thereby leading to harassment and sometimes closure of private unaided schools by education officials,” it had noted in its earlier report.

The panel had recommended that the HRD ministry should streamline the process of “certificate of recognition” and make it more transparent.