Managing challenges of RTE

Right to Education assures every child education. Thus no schools (at least the Govt schools) can now deny admission to one is provided with was implemented some time back, its practical aspects are now manifesting themselves. One such aspect that Education Depts. Across the country are facing are the non-availability of space for schools.

In Delhi this has resulted in the Dept. asking schools to add floors to their present school buildings. Till now considering the safety aspects, Govt school buildings were only upto 2 floors, however now the Education Dept. has asked PWD to add floors. Of course the Dept. has stated that this will not be done in all cases and will be done only if the basic structure is strong enough.

However it is wondered if the agency has considered the safety aspects in the schools. Let us not forget a few years back a disaster stuck in Haryana where around 50-60 children died as the children starting running over each other while coming down from first floor to ground floor. At the same time let us also recognize that most private schools have multi-story buildings.

Amongst our members, we have All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, who have done a lot of work on safety in schools. Perhaps they can through light on this aspect.

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