India News | Railways Recants Order to Close/merge Its Schools with Kendriya Vidyalayas

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) In a relief to students enrolled in schools run by the railways, the Railway Board on Thursday withdrew its earlier orders to either shut or merge its schools in the country with Kendriya Vidyalayas.

In an order issued on Thursday, the Railway Board said the national transporter provides educational facilities in the form of railway schools within the constraint of available resources, "purely as a measure of staff welfare to cater to the needs of children of railway employees at such places where educational facilities provided by other agencies are inadequate".

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Letters by the Railway Board, dated September 28, 2021 and October 25, 2021, issued instructions that an assessment be conducted and feasibility be explored of closure/merger of railway schools. This also included identification of schools to be handed over to the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.

It was also emphasised that no promotions in Group-B/Senior Scale/Junior Administrative Grade be processed or recruitment be done where rationalisation of schools was being planned.

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"The above instructions stand withdrawn with immediate effect and revival of railway schools having potential to provide basic education service may be done. It has now been decided that the existing railway schools will continue to function under a revised scheme envisaged by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education...," the Board said.

It also said admissions of students for the current academic session with potential, wherever withheld, are to be reopened and finalised at the earliest.

The promotion of staff, wherever withheld, is to be processed and contractual recruitment of teachers, wherever required may be undertaken to fill up the vacant posts expeditiously.

The plan to close or merge the railway schools followed the recommendations of former principal economic adviser Sanjeev Sanyal on the rationalisation of government bodies under the Ministry of Railways.

In his report, Sanyal said the railways were running 94 schools, providing education to children of not only railway employees. He said as of 2019, only 15,399 railway wards were enrolled in these schools which was less than half of other non-railway students who constituted 34,277.

The railways has also supported 87 Kendriya Vidyalayas where 33,212 railway wards and 55,386 other students were enrolled. Of the total 8 lakh children of railway employees in the 4-18 age group, less than 2 per cent were enrolled in the railway schools.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)