Lucknow, July 11 -- In the face of criticism and teachers' protests, the Yogi Adityanath government will now go full steam ahead with its plan to merge low-enrolment schools with larger schools nearby as the legal challenge to the move has fizzled out with the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court dismissing back-to-back public interest litigations (PILs) against the pairing (merger) of schools.

The high court dismissed one PIL on July 7 and another on Thursday that challenged the June 16 order of the state government for the pairing (merger) of schools.

According to the state government, no school will be shut down under this policy. Instead, schools will be upgraded -- one school may be designated for pre-primary, while another ne...