Delhi HC pulls up officials over sad state of govt schools

The Delhi High Court on Monday pulled up the city government’s education department for the sad state of affairs in the government schools in its north-east district and directed that responsibility be fixed on the officials concerned for the lapse.

A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan took into account a scathing report given by lawyer Ashok Agarwal, who visited these schools and found many discrepancies including broken desks, a shortage of classrooms, supply of books and writing material. It remarked that authorities are not supposed to just make publications in the newspaper but also work on the ground level to address the shortcomings.

The court remarked that the authorities' lack of planning resulted in apathy among the school children and said accountability must be fixed by the officials. The court also questioned how the children were expected to study in a tin building in scorching heat.

According to the reports around 144 children are made to sit in one classroom. The secretary of the education department, who was present in the court and had earlier visited the schools to examine their condition, confirmed the findings in the reports and assured that steps would be taken to drastically improve the situation in a time-bound manner.