District Collector M. Karunagaran on Monday gave his approval to close 12 schools in the district that have either not obtained recognition or renewed it as mandated under the Right of Children To Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act.
District Elementary Education Officer T. Ganeshamoorthy told The Hindu that this was only the first step towards the objective of closing all unrecognised schools in Coimbatore by the end of May.
When the next academic year commenced in June, only recognised schools would be allowed to function.
Eight of these schools, he said, had never obtained recognition and the rest had not applied to renew their recognition, which had expired in 2005.
The students in these schools would be shifted to the nearest recognised Government, aided or private school with the help of Assistant Elementary Education Officer.
All these schools, Mr. Ganeshamoorthy said, had been served the mandatory three notices in the period ranging from December 2011 to January 2013 pointing out their non-compliance with the Act. As they had not taken any steps to comply, the Directorate of Elementary Education had ordered their closure.
Totally, he said that notices were issued to 124 schools in the district. While many of them had initiated steps to comply with the norms, several have not.
Action would be initiated against all schools found violating the norms.
Section 18 (1) of the rules framed under the RTE Act stated that no school other those owned or controlled by the State Government or a local body could function without obtaining the recognition.
Those schools violating this rule would be levied a penalty of Rs. 1 lakh on the first day of functioning without recognition and Rs. 10,000 for every day from there on.
