Over 20,000 private schools in Karnataka have violated norms, did not get recognition renewal

Over 20,000 private schools in the State have violated various rules and have failed to get recognition renewal (RR) from the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) for 2025-26.

The DSEL has submitted a proposal to the government to relax four key rules, including submission of non-agricultural land conversion documents and approved building plans.

As per the Karnataka Education Act 1983 and the Right to Education (RTE) Rules-2012, it is mandatory for private and aided schools to get RR done every year. Earlier, private educational institutions had to submit about 60 documents to the DSEL for RR. It was a challenging task for private schools and not all schools were getting RR. This became a problem for students taking the SSLC exam. Later, the department used to give conditional RR extensions for these schools.

In the wake of private schools repeatedly appealing to the government in this regard, it had recently reduced the number of documents to be submitted for RR renewal to 30. However, the problem continued.

Survey on unauthorized schools

Around 25,000 private and aided schools are functioning across the State in a survey conducted by the DSEL on unauthorised schools for the year 2025-26.

During this time, over 20,000 schools were found to have violated various norms and their RR was not renewed. Only around 5,000 schools had received RR this year.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB) had restricted the registration of students from unauthorised schools who had not received RR for the SSLC examination. It had issued an order to merge the students of such schools with neighbourhood government or aided schools and register them for the SSLC examination.

However, in the wake of opposition from private schools, the KSEAB withdrew the order.

Speaking to The Hindu, Vikas Kishor Suralkar, Commissioner, Department of Public Instruction (DPI), said, “The list of schools that have violated the rules has been submitted to the government and the Minister has also approved it. Due to the stringent rules, more than 20,000 private schools are operating without RR. Therefore, the government has decided to further simplify the RR renewal norms. A proposal has been submitted to the government to drop four important rules in this regard.”

What are the rules that will be dropped?

It was mandatory for the schools concerned to submit the non-agricultural land conversion documents obtained from the Revenue Department for starting new schools and RR.

\“The matter of land conversion is related to the Revenue Department. The Revenue Department will take appropriate action regarding the non-conversion of land of schools. We do not need to worry about this,” said Vikas Kishor Suralkar, Commissioner, Department of Public Instruction (DPI).

“For RR, every private school has to pay school stability fee ranging from ₹60,000 to ₹1.70 lakh. However, running a private school costs around ₹20 lakh per month. Due to this, the School Stability Fund has also been relaxed,” he added.

He also said it is mandatory for all private schools to provide Provident Fund (PF) and Employee’s State Insurance (ESI) facilities to the staff. However, it is not necessary to submit documents regarding PF and ESI facilities during RR as these matters are taken care of by the Labour and the PF Departments. “It is enough to provide information about this in the audit report of the schools,” Mr.Suralkar stated.

It is mandatory for all private schools to submit Fire Safety and Building Stability certificates for RR. So, the approved building plan is not necessary, he said. “Approved building plan documents cannot be made mandatory for old schools built before 1990 and 2000. Therefore, it has been decided to relax this rule as well, and instead, schools will only need to provide a self-certified sketch verified by an architect,” he added.