Chennai: Building code violations and unsafe conditions prevail at several schools. Three institutions have even admitted students without approvals. While every school functioning in the country must have a Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) code, which is proof of their recognition, a TOI verification from the UDISE website revealed that more than 15 schools in the city had been “permanently closed” and had no code.While most of these schools had shut down or been upgraded, several were not found at the address mentioned. Three of them — Asiana Nursery Primary School in Pudupet; Anas Ibnu Malik Global Islamic School and Kalanjiam Islamic School — were functioning and accepting admissions for 2026-27.A verification with the TN Fee Determination Committee and Directorate of Private Schools confirmed that the schools were also inactive on the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) portal, and were non-existent on paper. “Students passing out of these schools are also non-existent as transfer certificates are generated via EMIS. If there is no EMIS, students will face difficulties in getting admission to other schools,” an official with the school education department said.He, however, added that the department will generate a new UDISE id for such students and generally refrained from taking action against such schools keeping in mind the future of students.While Anas Ibnu Malik and Kalanjiam school administrators refused to meet TOI, Asiana principal Jerone initially threatened of legal action, but later said that she was only teaching 10 students as a social service.When flagged, officials with the district education office (private schools) said there were 13 such schools functioning without approvals as of last year — a list of which was compiled and sent to the Collectorate for action. However, they did not provide the list. Personal Assistant General to the Collector A Hazarathbegum said the Collectorate did not have the authority to identify unrecognised schools in the city and that she was unaware of which department issued the notice, even as the Collectorate had identified such schools in the past.DEO Jaishankar said that action would be taken. “An inspection will be carried out and three layers of notices will be issued to such schools. If they don’t respond to us, we will press the collectorate for action, which will lead to closure,” he added.
