Published By: Sukanya Nandy
Last Updated: April 08, 2023, 13:07 IST
Maharashtra education commissioner also advised parents to inquire about schools before getting their children admitted (Representational image)
State education commissioner Suraj Mandhare also added that criminal action will be taken against schools with serious mistakes in their documents
Maharashtra’s education department has put 800 schools, affiliated with different boards, under the scanner for allegedly running bogus operations. State education commissioner Suraj Mandhare commented on the issue of bogus schools after announcing the RTE lottery in Pune on Wednesday, April 5.
“Around 800 schools affiliated to boards in the state are running on bogus certificates and errors have been found in their documents. At least 100 of these schools have been closed permanently,” he said, as quoted by Hindustan Times. Mandhare also added that criminal action will be taken against schools with serious mistakes in their documents.
The state education commissioner also advised parents to inquire about schools before getting their children admitted. Mandhare said that parents should check a school’s documents and registration number on the state government’s online portal before they begin the admission process.
The state education board had inspected over 1300 schools earlier. According to Mandhare, 800 schools out of the total were found to have errors in their documents. For these institutes, the No Objection Certificate (NOC), the approval certificate of the concerned board, as well as the letter of intent issued by the state government, are being verified. If these documents are not in order, the accreditation of the school will be cancelled. After de-accreditation, these schools can seek relief from the courts.
The education officers have been instructed to discuss the matter with the deputy director of education and prepare a proposal for concrete action for the case, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Mandhare had previously clarified that the ‘No Objection Certificates’ (NOCs) of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) affiliated schools in Maharashtra will be verified to check their authenticity. The announcement was made earlier this year after it came to light that several schools in Pune were functioning as CBSE-affiliated institutions without having the required NOC. According to a report in the Indian Express, there are over 2,000 CBSE-affiliated schools in Maharashtra.
An FIR in the matter was registered against unknown persons at Pune’s Samarth police station by Sunanda Wakhare, Education Officer in the Secondary Education Department of Pune zilla parishad. The police initiated a probe into the matter after the complaint, which named three schools. A senior official had said that the possibility of an organised racket issuing fake NOCs for CBSE affiliation was also being investigated.
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