MUMBAI, July 13 -- Months after the school education department found itself in the dock in the Rs 400-crore Shalarth ID scam, under which over 4,000 bogus teachers are estimated to have drawn salaries for nearly six years, another alleged irregularity has surfaced: that of UDISE+ numbers. A UDISE+ number is a unique 11-digit identification number assigned to every recognised school in India by the state ministry of education for its national database. However, in March and April this year, when municipal corporations across Maharashtra released lists of unauthorised schools operating in their areas, and said they would cancel their UDISE+ numbers, the inevitable question asked was: how did unauthorised schools get the number in the first place? The number of such schools was huge: 164 in the BMC, 81 in the Thane Municipal Corporation, seven in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation, five in the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, 77 in Palghar and 45 in Pune. Overall, more than 350 schools in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and other parts of the state were declared unauthorised. Shivnath Darade of the Maharashtra Shikshak Parishad said that this could be another major scam. "Giving UDISE+ numbers to unauthorised schools is a serious issue," he said, claiming that there could be a nexus behind the process. "The government must investigate this. There should be a detailed inquiry into the entire system of issuing UDISE+ codes." The reasons behind illegal schools being allotted UDISE+ numbers are complex. Initially, the UDISE platform operated primarily as a data-collection mechanism rather than a verification tool and numbers were thus distributed widely to compile comprehensive student enrolment data. Thus, the UDISE code initially obtained by many schools was legal. In 2017, the updated platform called UDISE+ was connected with the Right To Education (RTE) Act, under which schools had to abide by certain infrastructural norms such as a 5,000-feet playground. Several schools, especially those operating in slums, were unable to meet these, but kept using their original UDISE numbers and not updating them every year as was required, said an official from the education department. "Some schools wrongly assumed that getting a UDISE number meant they had government recognition," said Rajesh Kankal, deputy education officer of the Mumbai division. Anil Bornare, president of the Shikshak Mahasangh, Mumbai and Konkan division, said that officials had the authority to cancel the renewal of UDISE codes if schools failed to use them properly or did not meet the required conditions. "But the authorities often take a lenient view considering the future of students," he said. "School managements have become used to this approach." Bornare further said that in 2017, when Vinod Tawde was the education minister, the government allowed schools to use rented playgrounds to meet the requirements of the RTE Act, although many schools still failed to comply. He alleged that the government had repeatedly given school managements opportunities to regularise their documents instead of taking strict action. When contacted by HT, representatives of some unauthorised schools said that it was difficult to meet all infrastructure norms. "Just because a school lacks enough land does not mean it is doing anything illegal," said a representative. "The government should reconsider the rules for schools working in slum areas." Bornare said that Mumbai had 218 illegal schools in 2018 and 164 in 2026. "This means that some schools either obtained the necessary permissions or shut down," he said. "However, several schools are still operating in unsafe buildings even after nearly a decade of repeated appeals by the government to regularise their documents." A representative of the Slum Private School Management Association, said the group had held several meetings with education officials and ministers. "School education minister Dada Bhuse assured us recently that a committee would be formed to study the problems faced by slum-based private schools and recommend relaxations in norms; however, that committee has not yet been appointed," she said. "Every year, the BMC publishes a list and allows us to submit our representation. But this year, FIRs are being filed. We believe this is unfair and we are ready to fight a legal battle." Kankal said that after the issue came to light, the department had stopped issuing UDISE+ numbers to unauthorised high schools. "There are also some orphanage-cum-schools with UDISE+, and we are now verifying and cancelling such numbers wherever necessary," he said....