Delhi Government Relaxes Private School Opening Norms, Land Rules and Recognition Process

Delhi Government aims to increase the numbers of private schools in high population areas with streamlining of the procedure, as a result of which, it decided to replace the decades-old mandatory essentiality certificate with a self-certification system for issuing school recognition. Under the new policy, the need for the applicant to get the government’s approval in the form of a certificate showing the need to build a new school in the locality is dropped. Now, the promoter is supposed to provide self-certification that all the required norms set by the RTE Act are met, including norms related to infrastructure, safety and staffing.

This initiative should help the procedure and attract new private schools. The government’s decision cancels a whole range of long-standing provisions made according to the Delhi School Education Act and Rules, DSER, 1973, and follows the idea of the high-level reducing and decreasing exercise.

The new amendments to the law conform that the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education, RTE Act, 2009, under which recognition of the school is issued on the basis of certain objective criteria such as infrastructure, teacher qualifications, safety standards, and student-teacher ratios but not of the government’s opinion about the need to establish a new school in a particular locality.

“With this change, we are taking our focus away from unwanted paper work to the important aspects of the recognition, like the quality infrastructure, high qualified teachers, and the ratio of students to teachers,” said Delhi education minister Ashish Sood.

As per the Rule 44(3) has been amended. Also, Rule 50(ii) has been changed to abolish the requirement to check to build a new school by increasing already existing schools. “This reform brings Delhi’s rules in alignment with the central RTE Act, ensuring that school recognition is based strictly on transparent standards, not subjective hurdles,” Ashish Sood added.