Bengaluru: A special legislature committee, chaired by MLC Puttanna, has submitted its interim report recommending widespread regulatory relief, document simplification, and financial relaxation for thousands of private aided and unaided schools established prior to the 2017–18 academic year.A central pillar of the committee’s findings is that post-2017 infrastructure and safety norms cannot be retrospectively forced onto older institutions. As per the recommendations, existing school buildings under 15 metres in height established prior to 2017-18 should be completely exempted from obtaining or renewing fire safety no-objection certificates (NOCs). Instead, schools must maintain functional fire extinguishers, sand buckets, trained staff, and clear exit pathways.For school buildings taller than 15 metres, the panel proposed extending fire NOC validity from two years to 5-10 years and standardising the statewide NOC fee from Rs 20,000 to Rs 5,000.To eliminate corruption and long delays associated with public works department inspections and specialised lab testing, the committee recommended allowing govt-registered local civil engineers or architects to issue structural stability certificates. Under this framework, certificates would be valid for 25 years for buildings up to 25 years old, 10 years for those aged 25-35 years, and five years for the structures over 35 years old.It also suggested halting the practice of demanding Rs 3,00,000 security deposits or e-bank guarantees during recognition renewal for older institutions, directing the department to honour existing Rs 30,000 fixed deposit (FD) certificates.The committee called for scrapping redundant paperwork—reducing more than 30 documents—and establishing two separate online portals: one for new school approvals and another specifically tailored for the renewal of pre-2017–18 schools.To protect students in multi-curriculum institutions operating on a single campus without separate approvals, the committee rejected abrupt school closures. Instead, it recommended a “safe exit rule,” freezing Grade 1 admissions while allowing existing batches to graduate naturally year by year.Similarly, in order to prevent SSLC and PUC students from being forced to register as private candidates due to delayed administrative renewals, the panel recommended granting provisional renewals so that students can appear for board exams under their institution’s name.The committee was formed in 2025 to examine the operational hardships of renewal of recognition of private schools.———————Other recommendations-Lowering of the minimum required student strength for recognition renewal from 25 to 20 students due to declining birth rates and shifting demographics-Immediate release of overdue RTE fee reimbursements and revision of the eight-year-old fixed reimbursement rates-End to charging commercial rates for property taxes, garbage fees, power, and water connections for schools-One-time settlement to clear the backlog of delayed renewal applications from previous years
