The government receives a number of applications throughout the year from schools seeking relocation. The decision was taken in the wake of the absence of proper procedural norms regarding relocation which often results in controversies and causes inconvenience to students and staff members.

The new rule states that a school can be relocated only to a place that is under the ownership of the school management and should not be relocated more than 10 km from the original location. Schools in tribal sectors will not be permitted to relocate to a non-tribal sector.

If a school shuts down because of inadequate number of students then the school must be shifted to an area that needs a school and should be able to provide all the facilities that a school is required to. The proposal for relocation should be sent to the education officer (secondary schools) between November 15 and December 1.

It should then be passed to the deputy director and director of school education and all the proposals should be forwarded to the government by March 5.

The education department must take the decisions on the proposals before the beginning of the next academic session. If a school has to shut down because of inadequate number of students or the school decides to shift to a place owned by the school management the proposal will be accepted.

An official said, “Permission for a school in a particular area is granted to provide access to education to local residents, however, when the school is shifted elsewhere the local requirements are not met with. If an aided school is relocated, in the absence of any other aided school in the vicinity, students may not have access to facilities provided by the aided school like mid-day meals, free uniform among other things.

Even if there is a school in the same area it may not have the capacity to accommodate or provide enough facilities to students.”