Kerala education minister C Raveendranath(File image)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has served closure notices to 1,585 unrecognized, unaided schools in Kerala , said education minister C Raveendranath in the assembly on Wednesday. Responding to IUML’s KNA Khader, who sought permission for an adjournment motion, the minister said that the government action is based on the mandatory provisions stipulated in the Right to Education Act and an order issued by state child rights’ commission.

The minister said that many such schools are running without basic minimum standards. “In many cases, the pay and service conditions of teachers and non-teaching staff are not followed,” he said.

The minister said that in 2013, the government had decided to grant recognition to unrecognised schools. Of the 1,194 of that applied for the same, government gave recognition to 395 schools. The minister said that while some schools gave explanation to the government on the notices served to them, others approached the high court against the notice.

“We will examine the explanation given by schools. The government will keep an open mind in this matter and take an appropriate decision,” he said.

Khader said government should not go to the extreme of closing schools when education is the right of every child as those schools are sharing the burden with the government. “There are approximately 5,000 such schools in which there are 15 lakh children and 1.5 lakh teachers. If government decides to close them down, the most-affected staff will be women. This will go against the idea of women empowerment,” he said.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said the government should allow schools to rectify deficiencies within two years. Then chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan intervened and said that former education minister PK Abdu Rabb had said in the assembly that unrecognized schools will be closed and Rabb responded that he had extended time for schools to improve. Considering the government’s open-minded attitude in this matter, the opposition decided not to walk out.

