Dummy schools in Ahmedabad? Coaching classes are tying up with regular schools!

By Rajiv Shah

Dummy schools? Well, this is the new term that appears to have been coined -- and they are a "happening" in Ahmedabad, vibrant Gujarat's business capital. An insider who happens to occupy an important position in one such privately owned school told me the other day, what are known as many "classes" -- the after-school coaching shops -- have "tied up" with these government recognised schools.
"The children are helped by enrolling them in regular schools, which for them operate as dummy schools. They don't have to attend classes. Their attendance is marked as present. They appear regularly in all examinations. Only once a week they are required to go to their dummy schools where they are enrolled, that too if they are science students, as the coaching classes don't have lab facilities", I was told.

A functionary of one such dummy schools told me, he has been orally appointed and has not even received any appointment letter -- if he wants an experience certificate he can't get one! The salary of its so-called vice principal is a mere Rs 20,000 -- in cash!

When approached, a former principal of a top Gujarat school told me that there is "nothing new" about this, as these dummy schools have been operating for quite some time now. However, there is a sudden spurt in these dummy schools.

"They undermine formal education especially at the secondary and higher secondary level. Children going to these dummy schools for instance are not involved in any extracurricular activities, are in fact devoid of all round development", he told me, adding, such dummy schools now commonly operate in many parts of Gujarat and India.
I have no idea if the Gujarat government or the authorities in India are aware of this development. However, it is highly unlikely that the politicians associated with the ruling BJP don't know about it, as many of them, as also those of the Congress, are known to run regular schools, privatised and government aided.

Are dummy schools are just an extension of the privatisation of education, one of the main thrusts of the New Education Policy? Let policy makers take a call.

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