School Rules and Regulations in India

School education across India is governed by the central law, the Right to Education Act, 2009 and 145 other state laws and 101 corresponding rules under those laws. The public schools across the nation don’t follow every rule under these categories, however, the private schools follow infinite rules and thereby undergo pressure to meet all the regulations and rules. This article is about the rules and regulations followed by schools and their various departments.

General rules and regulations:

The study courses for the primary and middle grades should be recommended by the afflicting board and the focus should be given to sovereignty, integrity and other moral values. However, the schooling system should also focus on personal and environmental hygiene, educating about population, and awareness about the effects of drugs, and intoxicants.

The rules related to the school hours are applied as mentioned in rule 31 and the number of working days mentioned in rule 32 applies when the student is pursuing their studies informally, out of school or belongs to adult education.

Breaching the disciplinary conditions is formally addressed by the school management, however, if the school authorities are not satisfied, then such students are sent to special schools if the condition requires.

The names of the students are struck from the rolls when the student has not paid their fees for the long term or if he/she carries any other dues for more than 20 days after the last days for the respective payment. In certain cases, the parents or guardians might not meet the deadlines given by the school in paying the fees, the school management might give them 10 days of grace time to pay their fees.

Forbidden practices inside the school premises:

The students are expected to behave well and aid in common hygienic expectations, therefore the rules include:

• Spitting or throwing garbage inside the school premises
• Smoking
• All forms of gambling
• Consuming alcoholic beverages, or narcotic products
• Rude or violent behaviour
• Expressing casteism, communalism or untouchability
• Carrying weapons or indulging in inappropriate activities such as ragging.

Rules related to school buses:

School buses offer convenient means of transportation for the students, mitigate safety issues, keep the laws in place and enhance the benefits including reaching schools on time, these rules and regulations are followed:

• School buses are expected to carry the label “School bus” both on the back and front sides of the bus, and the letters “School cab” should be written on all four sides of the vehicle.
• The school buses should contain a First-aid box and should carry all the essential medicines and aids for medical emergencies.
• The windows of the school buses should contain horizontal grills for protection and the doors should contain appropriate locks that come with the highest reliability.
• The fire extinguishers should be placed at an appropriate distance that is reachable for the driver.
• The body of the school bus should be yellow in colour and come with horizontal green colour stripes running all around the vehicle.
• If the school bus is served for pupils with the age above 12 years, they should be treated as one person and if the bus carries students whose age is below 12 years, then the seating capacity shall not increase 1 ½ times the appropriate seating capacity.
• There should be a proper storage section for the school bags of the children and no school bags should hung outside the vehicle. There should be two emergency exits, one on the rear half of the bus on the right side and another on the rear end of the bus in case of emergencies.
• The driver of the school bus must have acquired the license to drive LMV- Transport vehicles and must have crossed at least 4 years in driving vehicles of such categories. The driver must abide by the laws related to his uniform and carry ID cards and other documents.
• The lowest footstep height should not exceed the height of 220mm off the ground.

Conclusion:

Overall we can say that the majority of the regulations focus on infrastructure, and inputs only. Therefore the school management systems strive to accumulate resources to meet the regulations. However, the regulations related to the ideas, enhancing the teaching and learning experience fun and insightful have to be established to make the learning experience more engaging to the students. Therefore the regulations are expected to be updated to reach the ultimate goal for the education systems in India is to foster personalized education, and holistic learning that encourages pupils to build the right skill sets and incorporate entrepreneurship into the early stages of schooling.