Govt. mulling against giving permission to private schools for three years
Bengaluru, June 13: The state government has planned not to give permission to open any private schools for next three years in the state.
It is said that the government has taken this decision to check the mushrooming of private schools year after year as the number of students in government schools is reducing considerably. The Primary and Secondary Education department has received total 2429 proposals to open private schools in 2018-19 academic year. But according to a senior officer in the department, the government would not consider those proposals this year.
It is said that the number of children in government schools is also decreasing because of Right to Education Act (RTE). Under this Act, a private school has to give 25 per cent seats for the financially backward students. Apart from this, the mushrooming of private schools within the radius of 5 km of government schools is causing problem for the admission into government schools. Keeping this in mind, the department has decided not to give permission to open any new private schools in the state. But the final decision into this effect is yet to take, the officer said.
However, Primary and Secondary Education Minister N Mahesh said that the government has decided to conduct the census of the private schools. Before giving permission to private schools, the department has to think twice. The government has established 176 model government schools equal to private schools. In the same way, few more such model schools would be established. Instead of giving permission to private school, the government is mulling improving the quality of the government schools. Fee fixation norm should be strictly implemented for private schools and make sure that the private schools are following the norm, he said.
Previous education minister Tanveer Sait had said that permission would not be given for private schools for next five years. But because of the influence of the private schools managements, then minister had backtracked from his decision. Among total applications, more applications were submitted from Bengaluru urban and Bengaluru South has submitted 369 applications, while Bengaluru North has 216 applications, sources said.
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
