3 education experts in committee to fix school bldg norms

CHENNAI: Three educational experts have to be added to the committee constituted for completing a report to fix the minimum land requirement for 746 schools which did not fulfill minimum eligibility norms, said the Madras high court on Monday.

The three members from the state are academicians S L Chittibabu, Lalitha and S S

Rajagopal

.

Earlier, NGO ChangeIndia director A

Narayanan

had filed a PIL saying 746 schools were found to have violated rules pertaining to minimum land availability and other requirements. Since it involved the safety of more than five lakh students in these institutions, authorities must not allow student enrolment in these schools unless they met the mandatory norms, he said.

Referring to a representation the organisation had submitted to the authorities, Narayanan said they must act swiftly to ensure that students in these schools were able to continue their education without disruption. They must continue their education in other recognised schools he said. The schools should follow all the norms as mentioned by the different government orders, he said. The court had then directed constitution of a committee comprising education experts and education department officers. It had directed D Sabitha, principal secretary to school education department, to remain present in the court.

On Monday, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said that advocate general R Muthukumaraswamy told the court that the committee had only bureaucrats. The AG said that three more education experts can be added to the panel. The court then directed the authorities to include the three experts to the existing committee.

“We may note the submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the committee may keep in mind the observations made by Hon’ble Supreme Court dealt with

Kumbakonam

tragedy,” the bench added. The matter has been posted to December 22 for further hearing.