Hyderabad, May 15: Thousands of private schools had mushroomed in Chandrababu Naidu’s Andhra Pradesh, selling seats for “donations” but never bothering to obtain government permission to run.

Now, over 800 of them are threatened with derecognition, leaving thousands of students ? many of them preparing for their board exams ? facing an uncertain future.

District education officers have served showcause notices on 650 private schools in Hyderabad and 200 in the neighbouring Ranga Reddy district.

The Congress government’s action follows a survey by a UK-based voluntary organisation, Educare Trust, which found that over 23 per cent (nearly one out of four) private schools in Hyderabad were run illegally.

The trust’s director, S.V. Gomati, said private schools that do not care for government aid often don’t bother about permission. “Through a clandestine arrangement with recognised schools, these illegal schools get their students to write their competitive examinations for Classes VII and X.”

Of the nearly 1 crore students in about 1.2 lakh schools, private institutions account for almost 57 per cent.

“The Telugu Desam Party regime promoted privatisation of primary and high schools. During its 10-year tenure, only 8,000 new government schools came up against 32,000 private ones,” a spokesman for the education department said.

Although Hyderabad accounts for the largest number of these benami schools, education department officials say Rayalaseema and Telengana aren’t far behind.

“In Karimnagar district alone, there were 300 benami schools out of 530. In Kurnool, the figure was 350 out of 1,300,” an official said.

The Private School Operators’ Association, however, has an explanation. “Since we admit students at the beginning of the year, we are forced to continue even when the requisite permission does not come by the end of the previous year,” said its secretary Chalapathi Rao, who runs a school in Chikkadapally in Hyderabad.

United Teachers’ Association functionary M.G. Prasad Rao, too, defended the schools. “Many schools were not given permission in time on technical grounds. A major cause for disqualification was that some of these schools did not have a playground. Now all of them are being branded benami.”

B. Mallamma, the district education officer in Ranga Reddy, said government procedures are cumbersome while education is a lucrative business. “A school must open at the beginning of the academic year in March or not at all.”

She added that students of private schools are forced to pay a “donation” of at least Rs 1,000 for admission.