The State government is taking “effective” steps to constitute a high-level committee to formulate a comprehensive Act to govern all private schools - matriculation, Anglo-Indian, oriental, nursery and primary schools, it informed the Madras High Court.
The additional counter affidavit filed by Education Department officials against a PIL plea, stated that the Act would be formulated in the light of Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010 and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday before the first Bench comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, the Advocate General submitted that he would ascertain the time period within which the exercise could be carried out and sought deferment of hearing to June 18.
Former Minister of State for Railways R. Velu had filed a PIL plea in 2011 seeking to declare the Code of Regulations for matriculation schools in the State illegal and invalid, contending that the government, which should advance the cause of elementary and secondary education, was acting contrary to the mandate of the Constitution and laws governing the subject. Observing that the matriculation schools were recognised by the Director of Matriculation Schools under the Code of Regulations for them, the petitioner submitted that except schools which had received recognition from Madras and Madurai Universities as on June 1, 1976, the others were not entitled to recognition.
The government could not permit any new private school in the State, except under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Private Schools Regulations Act, he said.
Government to constitute a
high-level panel to carry out the exercise
