Broken blackboards, desks and classroom doors. Bad condition of toilets and no availability of clean drinking water. This is the condition of the government boys secondary school #2, Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. The school doesn’t even have a playground. But, the principal says, it has arrangements of indoor games.

This was found during the inspection done by the School Watch Group, a newly formed group of more than 20 non-governmental organizations. This is the first time that a common man has been allowed to inspect the Delhi government schools, says Saurabh from the ngo Josh.

Josh is working with the national commission for protection of child rights (NCPCR) in Delhi to conduct the post-facto audit on implementation of RTE act. For this it had to visit schools run by MCD and GNCT. But it was not allowed to enter schools of GNCT.

“We found that if the child complains about something, even then parents were not allowed to enter the school,” says Saurabh. He adds, “We wanted to make the system more transparent and participative.”

Josh filed an RTI with the Central Information Commission (CIC) saying that certain categories of document including the manuals mandated under Section 4 (1) (b) of the RTI Act should be available in hard copy at the school.  It is further said that documents should be available for inspection suo motu to ensure transparency and accountability of the functioning of schools.

The commission asked the directorate of education, Delhi government to open their records and passed an order saying that on the last working day of every month, the records of the schools can be inspected by any citizen.

On Friday, for the first time schools run by GNCT were inspected. Saurabh says, “We will check the records of total enrollment, students’ attendance, teachers’ attendance, infrastructure available, budget, and if computers are working or not.”

He adds, the group is focusing on schools in the constituencies of MP Sandeep Dikshit, HRD minister Kapil Sibal and Delhi education minister Arvinder Singh. “We want to see the condition of schools in the constituencies of these powerful men,” says Saurabh.

The information and data thus collected will be analysed and a report will be formed which will be signed by the school principal and the one who inspected the school. The group feels the process will help in involving the community in the monitoring process. From next month, the same process will be replicated in schools run by MCD schools as well.

The group has also forwarded the order of CIC to NGOs in other states asking them to take similar order from the state commission.