Education Minister Dr Mahendra Reddy has clarified that the ‘School Zoning Policy’ has NOT failed and will remain in place.

However he says the Ministry will revisit the Policy to identify loopholes.

Dr Reddy says they have found that the policy which has been in place since 2011 has not been complied with in some cases.

“It’s just that for any policy there will be some breaches and we need to identify those breaches and ensure that those breaches don’t arise again. So the policy is there in force and most of the schools are complying but there are cases where schools are sometimes found to be in breach and we are dealing with that.”

Government grants are given to schools based on the number of students and Dr Reddy claims this could be a factor resulting into the breach of the policy.

“So sometimes school managements, schools principals or head teachers go overboard in attracting students from other zones so that they can get more grant so that maybe an issue on the formula of grant – so that is something that we want to look at this time around as well – whether the grant formula is also contributing to breach of the zoning policy.”

School zoning is boundaries for schools at different levels indicating students’ residences that are located two kilometers away from the school.