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According to Social Jurist, there are around 10,000 unauthorised schools operating in the capital territory with about six lakh children studying in them.Several of these schools are for primary and pre-primary children. Many of them, Social Jurist says, hold examinations and issue certif-icates. There is the added aspect of un-recognised, unregistered feeder schools run by unaided but recognised schools. Some unrecognised schools are run by individuals who have an understanding with certain government, government-aided and recognised private schools for the purpose of public examination.
"It is nothing but a big racket to exploit hapless parents in the name of so-called quality education by the private schools," says Aggarwal. It was more than a decade ago, in 1992, that a high-power committee was set up on Educa-tion Legislation by the Delhi government. It noted in its report that "some important provisions like registration of schools are entirely missing from the present Act (Delhi School Education Act, 1973), with the result that nobody knew how many unrecognised schools are functioning in Delhi.

The Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, has ordered an investigation into the decision to set up 95 Kendriya Vidyalaya schools in different parts of the country during the tenure of Murli Manohar Joshi.According to Ministry sources, Mr. Singh has directed that a probe be conducted into the sanction given for setting up the schools without the permission of either the Government or the executive committee of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. Mr. Arjun Singh has said that "responsibility should be fixed for this major lapse."

As a result, several schools had been opened without adequate facilities. The quality in existing schools as their teaching staff was depleted by "arbitrary" deployment to the new schools.

- Investigation ordered into setting up of 95 Kendriya Vidyalayas, The Hindu, 26/10/2004, [C.ELDOC.N20.26oct04h1.html]

"A pre-school should be purely non-formal, with no element of competition, examination, and least of all admission pre-conditions," recommended the state-level Ram Joshi Committee on Early Childhood Education in 1995. The committee's recom-mendations formed the crux of the Pre-School Admission Act, which could however, not be passed due to severe opposition from educa-tional institutions. Six years have passed thereafter, and the pre-school sector, particularly the fancy unregistered nurseries, con-tinue to negate every concept evolved in the policy document advocating well-rounded non-competitive education for the vital early years.

According to the S V Chittibabu Commission report (released in March 2003), nearly 65 percent of 1635 schools (Tamilnadu) that responded to the survey had less than one acre at their disposal for school buildings and a playground. One in four schools in the Matric stream remains unrecognised. About 43 percent of the schools had pucca buildings, the rest were either fully or partly kuchcha. Only 19 per cent of the boys and 28 per cent of the girls had access to "suitable" toilet facilities.

But for the devastating Kumbakonam fire, this report would have remained forgotten.

In its July-August 2004 survey of six districts, the Tamilnadu Child Rights Protection Network found that 13 out of 171 schools surveyed functioned without any recognition. And 30 of the 36 schools in Thiruvarur district were roofless after the government order on removing thatched roofs! Of the 32 schools in Madurai district, 9 did not have playgrounds, 6 had no toilet facilities and many more had only rudimentary amenities. Potable water was not available in 12 schools. In Nagapattinam, one of the schools was in the passageway of a marriage hall and 19 of the school buildings were dilapidated. Twenty schools were without playgrounds and three private schools had fewer than 3 acres. Of the 61 schools sampled, 33 private and aided institutions have not registered with the government.