As per law, every educational institution, including a pre-primary school, should obtain recognition. If a plea that no recognition is required for nursery schools is accepted, there would be several such schools without any kind of control, the Madras High Court has said.
Justice K.K. Sasidharan passed the order on a writ petition by Achariya Educational Public Trust challenging an order of the Director of Elementary Education of June 10 directing the trust to >close its nursery schools in Coimbatore .
The Judge said nursery schools should possess all the required facilities. There had been several unfortunate incidents in the State involving students. Such incidents should not recur. The Puducherry-based trust started three play schools for kids in Coimbatore. The District Elementary Educational Officer (DEEO) called upon the petitioner to submit an application for obtaining recognition. Accordingly, the petitioner submitted one which is pending. While so, the Director of Elementary Education affixed a notice on the institutions that they were unauthorised and should be closed (for its failure to obtain recognition under RTE Act.) The petitioner said that Act would not apply to nursery schools. Justice Sasidharan said even a pre-primary institution would come under the Tamil Nadu Recognised Private Schools (Regulation) Act. When the law mandated that every educational institution, including pre-primary, should obtain recognition, there was no merit in the petitioner’s contention that the authorities had no authority to take action against nursery schools.
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Granting liberty to the trust to submit an application to the DEEO for recognition, the Judge asked the authorities to dispose it of on merits and as per law within a month.