Civic body schools should have standards, says HC

Delhi High Court Wednesday told the city's civic agencies to frame standards for infrastructure in schools run by them and improve conditions for poor students studying there.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru told Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD): "It's high time that you (civic agencies) should have standards ... We should improve the condition of poor students."

It added: "We inquired from the counsel about the standards of infrastructure of schools. Counsel appearing for corporations submitted that there are standards, but they are not on record."

"By the standards we mean standard size of classrooms, standard size of school buildings with the given number of children, size of playgrounds, size and number of desks, size of blackboard etc. We must also not forget that some of the students are disabled and what are the standards for them. Standards be placed before the court."

The bench also directed the Delhi government to exercise the same standards in schools under them.

The court's direction came after advocate Ashok Agarwal raised the issue that there are no proper facilities for students studying in MCD schools.

"We direct that corporations shall clearly indicate an alternate method for registering complaints regarding corporal punishment. At present, complaints are being registered with the principal of schools," it said.

The court was also hearing a PIL which raised issues ranging from corporal punishment to infrastructure and quality of teaching in the schools run by the government and the civic agencies here.

The plea submitted that students were mercilessly beaten by teachers, who rarely took classes.

"The students are consistently abused and beaten with canes. Some teachers fling shoes at students for pointing out their mistakes. Others are beaten up for using the teachers' toilets," the petition said.

The petition said that 140-150 students are accommodated in one classroom which didn't have more than 20-30 benches. It said the classrooms had broken ceilings through which rainwater seeped in.

According to the plea, students of government schools Rama Krishna Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya and Sarvodya Kanya Vidyalaya and two MCD schools had sent postcards to the chief justice of Delhi High Court highlighting their problems.