Siraha district has at least one school registered in each ward of all its village development committees, according to records. However, most of the schools have never come into operation even after a long time. [break]
Given the situation at hand, the DEO has issued a public notice to revoke the permission of schools that are registered but have never started any classes.
“There are so many who register schools on paper in a frenzy but never bother to start operating them in reality. We are really fed up with the increasing number of such ´paper schools´,” said District Education Officer Hari Prasad Osti.
Osti also said that he has been forced to take the step as the district school inspectors and resource persons have not reported to the DEO for the past two years.
“People have different interests in registering schools; we have already started a monitoring campaign to take action against such spurious schools,” Osti added. “If we don´t stop this tendency, there will not be any improvement in the educational standard of the district,” Osti opined.
According to Osti, the DEO has issued notice to all such schools to submit proof of their operations. “Most of them have failed to provide proof as demanded,” he informed.
A joint team of representatives of political parties and media persons had monitored all schools under 11 resource centers and found that 69 registered schools never came into operation. “We have listed them under the category of paper schools and started a process to withdraw their licenses,” informed Osti.
“Those schools failing to submit proof of operations despite our notice will face action as per the Education Regulations. In the case of those submitting proof of operations, we will decide about them after monitoring them fully,” Osti said. He was of the opinion that the trend of schools reaping undue benefit under political cover would come to an end.
“Much have been looted under the veneer of politics. It is really unfortunate that the quality of education has been degraded due to myopic politics. This should now be stopped,” said Kishori Yadav, Siraha District chairman of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Nepal.
“We are not against any particular school. We have nothing to say against schools found running properly with their own infrastructure,” Osti said further.
The process of cancelling the licenses of schools failing to provide ample evidence of operations will start from next week.
In a monitoring campaign held six month ago, the DEO found no existence in the field of 50 registered schools. According to the DEO, most of the schools monitored were found to be lacking even a roof for their buildings, which were being used for tying up cattle. Those having their own buildings were found to have no students.
Most of the ´paper schools´ are located in Inarwa, Abhyanagar, Aurahi, Krishnapur, Nawarajpur, Sitapur, Mauwahi, Hakpara and Ayodhyanagar.
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