Education officials raid Ahmedabad school.

Times of India; Thursday, April 21, 2011,

AHMEDABAD: The office of commissioner of schools and the district education officer (rural) jointly carried out a raid at the Gomtipur Democratic High School and seized old records and documents.

The raid was carried out to look into allegations of school authorities showing more number of students and teachers to make money. The officials will also check if scholarships the school offers is not just on paper.

Three officials of the commissioner of schools and rural DEO Mahesh Joshi raided the school office on Wednesday, and confiscated documents. They said the documents will be studied in detail to find out if the school authorities are showing real figures for the number of students and teachers. There is also a possibility that the scholarship money is not being distributed among the deserving students.

The Gomtipur Democratic High School has been under the scanner of the education department for quite some time. The department had also raided the school last year. The school had hit headlines when an RTI application was filed by a local person seeking information about the actual number of students and teachers, and the scholarships granted by the school to the students.

The RTI applicant was aghast to receive a bundle of old newspapers packed and sent through registered post in reply to his query. Officials in the education department said that a crack down on schools suspected of running a money-making racket is in the offing. "Raids will soon be carried out at other schools to find out if they are violating the norms. Disciplinary action will be initiated against the errant schools," said an education department official.