‘Implement strict norms on private schools’

Organisations representing parents have exhorted the state education ministry to implement strict norms on private schools on the lines of what the Delhi government had done to implement the Right to Education Act. The organisations have said that strict implementation of the RTE Act and other laws would curb the commercialisation of education being done by private schools.

Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia recently came out with a notice to private schools that says, “‘Attention: Private Schools of Delhi’. Delhi government is serious about the Right to Education Act, 2009 and related orders issued by the honourable courts. All private schools are advised that irrespective of their earlier practices, they should end their unlawful activities.”

Welcoming the warning to private schools by Mr Sisodia, Jayant Jain, president of Forum for Fairness in Education and Sudhir Paranjpe of Anudanit Shiksha Bachao Samiti said that education minister Vinod Tawde should take a lesson from Mr Sisodia and show the will to implement existing laws.

“Mr Tawde is giving a bad name to the government by allowing private school managements to get away with profiteering. Apart from the RTE Act, there are many other laws that have been framed to curb profiteering and exploitation of the students and their parents, but Mr Tawde has so far not used any of them to get private school managements to toe the line; rather he tells parents to go to court. What is the point of having a minister who is not willing to use the laws at his disposal to give justice to aggrieved parents and students We need to have a minister like Mr Sisodia who is willing to take on the private school managements head on,” said Mr Jain.

Mr Paranjpe concurred with Mr Jain’s views and said that the lack of will on the part of the government to crack the whip on private school managements was indicative of a nexus between the government and the managements. “The RTE Act explicitly mentions reserving 25 per cent seats for financially weaker sections of society in private schools as these schools have received subsidies and freebies from the government. However, they are refusing and the government is doing nothing about it. Not only Mr Tawde but even chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is responsible for the current high-handedness of private school managements,” said Mr Paranjpe, adding that Mr Sisodia was able to issue a warning to the private school managements because he had no nexus with them.