Right to Education

Directorate of Education

Last week I had started a new column on the Right to Education, where I had focused on the attitude of Government school principals and staff, today I’ll express my views on the Directorate of Education.
The Directorate of Education (DOE) is the department which changes its regulations quicker than an average man changes clothes.
The department will release a circular in a small nook and corner on the page 6/7 of the daily newspaper stating that its latest regulations are available on its website. Opening the DOE website is as difficult as operating the Indian Railways website. Either the website is “Shut for updates” or your browser will conveniently display the message “This webpage is not available”. If you’re lucky enough to actual get access to the website you’ll realize that it has not been updated for months, there are no new regulations listed on the website at all. Consider yourself as Lucky as Uncle Scrooge if you actually do manage to find a list of the updated regulations available there (for eg. The list of documents that need to be submitted to get a local school recognized). By the time you get all the documents ready, a new circular will appear stating that the list has been updated!
I’ve been stuck in a never ending maze since 2005 to get my school recognized. As I’ve stated above by the time I got the listed documents ready a new list was out. I shed out money and labour at every step but to no avail. For example, I paid Rs 25000 in 2007 to get a NOC from the fire department. Now that document has no value, all the money down the drain.
In 2009 a new circular came out stating that unrecognized school will be closed down on March 31, 2010, hence the process of recognition had to be restarted.
Now days the government has selected retired principals to run the entire show of school recognition. To no one’s surprise their high handedness would put the Queen of England to shame. They’ve continued the set tradition of demanding new documents to be furnished every month. And by the time you receive the notification for the submission it’s practically impossible to act upon it. For example a letter signed off on the 7th of May last year reached my school (by speed post) on the 16th of June. The last date listed for the submission of the documents demanded in the letter was 18th of June. Going by their track record, it was a Usain Bolt level achievement by the letter that it actually reached it’s destination before the 18th of June.
I spend the next two days running here and there calling people, seeking help and eventually managed to submit the document on 18th. The next piece of communication I received from them was 10 months directly meet the concerned person, a retired Principal. When I contact the Principal requesting for an appointment he rudely tells me “Why do you want to meet Me? Go and get the documents attached to your file at the office”. When I do make the effort to actually visit the office I realize that before 11 AM nobody baring the peon is actually present in the office. Five days after getting that done, I again get a call from the secretary of the Principal asking me why haven’t I met the Principal yet? When I explain the entire case instead of being offered an appointment what I get a letter in one week that my application has been rejected. I’ve been fighting a losing battle against this machine called the DOE for over 3 years now.
Who is actually accountable for this entire process of school recognition? Who has given these Principal’s the authority to behave in this manner? Why do they actually want to close down the smaller schools when they clearly are not interested in getting children admitted to government schools (as listed in my previous article) Some sinister scheme is brewing here which aims to play with the futures of our children.
And in case it is only the Sherlock in me which is imagining a clever plot, then I request the government to ensure that these children get admission in government schools without facing any hassles or humiliation. The families of these kids cannot afford private education and that is why they come to schools like ours, where they somehow save every drop out of their buckets to pay us Rs 300 – 400 each month. If the government does not want us to help them with fulfilling what is actually their duty, of imparting free education to every child, then they need to take a good look at themselves and clean up their system.

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Sandesh Manroa

Mrs Sandesh Manroa from Delhi ( Twitter handle – @sandeshmanroa) is a Principal in charitable institute. She deeply feels about social issues and has great interest in Indian Politics.

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