No legal hurdle, govt to go full throttle on school pairing

State govt to go ahead with merger of schools after HC dismisses back-to-back PILs challenging June 16 order

- HT Correspondent

In the face of criticism and teachers’ protests, the Yogi Adityanath government will now go full steam ahead with its plan to merge low-enrolment schools with larger schools nearby as the legal challenge to the move has fizzled out with the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court dismissing back-to-back public interest litigations (PILs) against the pairing (merger) of schools.

The high court dismissed one PIL on July 7 and another on Thursday that challenged the June 16 order of the state government for the pairing (merger) of schools.

According to the state government, no school will be shut down under this policy. Instead, schools will be upgraded -- one school may be designated for pre-primary, while another nearby may be upgraded to the primary or upper primary level.

The merger of schools will increase teacher availability and allow students to access libraries, laboratories, sports grounds, smart classrooms and more, the state government said in an official statement on Thursday.

The model is being run on the lines of private institutions offering pre-primary to higher classes on a single campus.

Pairing of schools successful in other states

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Assam have successfully implemented the school pairing (merger) model, according to the Uttar Pradesh government

In Rajasthan, over 17,000 schools were merged to improve learning outcomes. Madhya Pradesh launched the ‘One Campus, One School’ (Ek parisar, ek shala) initiative, consolidating 16,076 schools.