RAMACHANDRAN NAIR, J.

This case is an eye-opener for the Government to realise that several Aided and Government Schools in the State are facing natural death on account of depletion of students and it is high time for the Government to take effective steps to make rearrangements in a realistic manner, keeping in mind the availability of quality education in large number of private schools already in existence and more coming up every day.

2. The Lower Primacy School in this case was started in the year 1967 at Ponkunnam, and it's decline started probably when two CBSE Schools were started in Ponkunnam and another two in the nearby area i.e. at Kanjirappally. In 2008- 09, the School had only 14 children from Standard I to IV, which came down steeply to 6 in 2009-10, and again to 3 in 2010-11. However, after Onam Holidays the School realised that 3 are only in record and really there is only one pupil in Standard I, who is none other than the daughter of the Teacher-in-charge. In other words, but for the mercy shown by the Teacher-in-charge by admitting her daughter in Standard I, the School would have been running with 3 teachers but without a single student. It is this child, who has come to this Court with WP(C) for permission to write the examination in the same School. However, looking at the absurd position of running a School with a single child, we issued interim order directing the respondents to permit the child to write first standard examination in a nearby Government School. This last student of the School is now in a CBSE School after bidding farewell to the Kerala Syllabus. This is not a unique case, and in several cases reaching in this Court, we have noticed that the cases booked against the managements by Educational Authorities are mostly for bogus admissions to protect existing teachers and for a cover to employ more in the School. With the connivance of the Educational Authorities and ultimately with the blessings of the Government this has been going on, and many Schools, according to the Government's definition, are uneconomic without required number of students, i.e. average of 25 students in a division, and still the Government allows this to continue. It is in this context, we had issued an interim order on 05/04/2011 suggesting to the Government to restructure Schools in a healthy manner so that only required number of teachers are employed in schools and excess should be deployed in other Schools. Reply filed by the Government in the form of report is shocking to us because the Government doesn't intend to do anything to prevent payment of salary to unemployed and under employed teachers.

3. Though education is a Policy matter of the Government, we feel obliged to express our views to the reply filed by the Government. In the report filed on behalf of the Government, reference is made to the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, (hereinafter referred to as the Act for short) which came into force in October, 2010. What is inhibiting the Government in the implementation of the suggestions made by us in the interim order to restructure Schools through mergers making them healthy is the need to have "neighbouring Schools" for children. Section 6 of the Act provides that appropriate Government or local authority should establish Schools within such area or limits of neighbourhood as may be prescribed by such Government. While the Central Act & the Rules do not define what is neighbourbood for location of Schools, the Kerala Government has made Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education Rules, 2011 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules for short) prescribing neighbourhood as 1 KM for children studying from Standard I to V and 3 KMs for children studying from Standard VI to VIII. Obviously, if Rule 6 of the Rules are to be complied with, within 1 KM of every household where a child is available for schooling from Standard I to V, a School should be p