In just a few days of inspection, a monitoring team lead by the DEO has found nine schools operating lower secondary classes without receiving authorisation.
"All these schools were running higher-level classes freely without meeting the legal requirements and we believe there are many other such schools in the district. We have initiated legal action against them," said Jhapa District Education Officer Ambika Prasad Regmi.
According to Regmi, the schools being subjected to action are in Tagandubba, Pattariya, Rajgad, Buddhabare, Sanishcharre and Bahundangi VDCs.
Meanwhile, teachers at the schools said the present situation has arisen due to the weakness of the DEO. "Monitoring teams rarely take their responsibilities seriously. Since they have never reached even the public schools, how can we imagine them reaching the doorsteps of the private ones," said a teacher at one of the higher secondary community schools in Jhapa.
The teacher further said that lack of stern punishment for such illegal activity is the other factor.
"Every year, around a dozen schools are caught engaging in illegalities but they are released after a light penalty. Had the legal action been sterner, they would not have repeated their misdeeds," said the teacher.
Purwaanchal District Boarding School of Bahundagi has authorisation to run classes up to grade 5 only but they regularly enroll students up to grade 8, informed Pitamber Gautam, DEO under-secretary.
"It is likely that the schools running illegally are more numerous. Not a single one will be spared from inspection and subsequent action," assured Gautam.
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