Deputy Commissioner of Koderma Bhuvanesh Pratap Singh has directed the district education officer to conduct an investigation on mushrooming of unregistered private schools in the district. The direction came after a letter from National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) took a cognizance on a complaint by a local activist regarding violation of Right to Education Act.

Talking to The Pioneer the DC said, “The fact that unregistered private schools are mushrooming. It cannot be denied but we get to know about it only when something happens at those schools. When we come across such schools we shut them down but now immediate action is needed."

NCPCR, in its letter mentioned that the complaint received by them alleged that apart from being unregistered, the private schools are not taking admission under economic weaker section (EWS) category, charging capitation fees, not having proper transport services and not providing proper infrastructure. The NCPCR letter has given a deadline of 20 days to the district administration to investigate in the matter and send an action taken report to the commission.

Following this the DC has directed the district education officer (DEO) to start the investigation process immediately. DEO of the district, Shiv Narayan Sah said, “The block education officers have been directed to visit each and every school and compile a report. We will be in the position to submit it within a week.”

Sah informed that only around 10 private schools are registered with the government while around 300 are unregistered. Onkar Vishwakarma, the activist who wrote the complaint to NCPCR said, “I have personally visited many schools to find discrepancies and several news reports have been published in this regard at the local media too.

 A number of issues are there in these private schools right from non registration to poor bus facility, verbal abuse to students, discrimination on basis of religion and many more. I hope that after investigation, the children get better educational facilities.”

DC informed that immediate action is taken in case of NCPCR letters and the same is being done regarding this case. "This year onward the State government has given the authority to give license to schools at district level. Using this we are hoping to speed up the process of registration," Singh said.

He added, "We will be working two fold. We will push the schools to meet eligibility criteria so they can get registered and if they fail to do so we will shut them down."