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Nikhila Pant Dhawan
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, February 20
Upping the ante against private schools and accusing the state government of favouring private schools, members of the Parents’ Rights Association today met the ADC (General) Rahul Chaba and submitted a charter of demands urging the state government to take action against private schools allegedly flouting norms under the Right to Education Act (2009).
It is pertinent to mention here that the admission process of private schools is underway these days.
Gurvinder Sharma, a member of the association, stated that the parents have long been protesting against the private schools for fleecing the parents and increasing various types of annual fee and charges. They added that last year, after a series of protests against private schools, the district administration had convened a meeting with parents, school heads and administrative officials in this regard.
The parents requested the ADC to tighten the noose around private schools openly flouting the norms laid down by the Central Board of Secondary Association (CBSE) and other boards that these schools are affiliated to. By engaging in commercial activities and admitting more students than prescribed, the schools also violate the terms of the Right to Education Act, 2009, they alleged.
The association demanded that the private schools must not charge any capitation fee, annual fund, increase tuition fee, computer education charges, development and examination fee every year at the time of admission and also that the schools must stop forcing parents to buy books and uniforms from them.
They also demanded that the students must not be taught from the books by private publishers and instead they should be taught from the books prescribed by the boards. “The schools prescribe books by private publishers which are not easily available in the market and are only available at select shops which function in collaboration with the schools and also give a hefty commission to schools. The same is applicable to school uniforms as well,” said Gurvinder Sharma, president of the association.
Complaint marked to DEO
After listening to the demands of the union, the ADC marked the memorandum submitted by the association to the District Education Officers, both secondary and primary, and directed the officers to take action against private schools flouting the RTE norms and also demanded that the details of the action taken on the request be communicated to the office within a stipulated period of time.