The Directorate of Education’s circular issued last week imposing strictures against government-aided schools charging fees illegally from students is nothing but an eyewash. The education department has only tried to pacify a section of aggrieved parents and douse the voices of dissent without going into the finer details of the many functional issues plaguing the schooling system.
Following up on a complaint by a section of the society, the board has directed aided schools to specify fees that they are going to charge during the academic year, preferably at the beginning of the term. The responsibility to ensure receipts are issued and to create awareness among parents is fixed on managements and heads of institutions. The schools are also required to submit an affidavit to the directorate of education that they will not collect money from the students/parents either in the name of the school, society or PTA.
Schools are known to be holding events and sometimes raising funds through various activities during the academic year. Students have been actively involved in most of these plans and the compulsion clause on students is an open secret. What was the education department doing all this while? Do they require someone to knock the reality into their senses? Or is it that the department is turning a Nelson’s eye because most of these aided schools enjoy political patronage?
The new education director Vandana Rao must dig deeper instead of taking such a superficial recourse and resting the issue on a mere circular. The ground realities in some schools are starkly astonishing. Does the education director know that there are cases where money is charged for the Bal Rath bus service from students from far-flung areas? Does the education director know that mechanisms of keeping a watch on schools have been a complete failure with ADEIs powerless in conducting surprise independent checks? Have you given the school managements and the PTAs a hearing?
Government-aided schools have been getting grants covering the costs of human resource and maintenance. However, in recent times certain school managements have drifted from the avowed objective of education and holistic development of students and turned it into a business model. If development is one of the criteria that managements are eyeing higher grades in a competitive environment, the students and parents cannot be held hostage to these goals. If schools need funds for infrastructure then there is Infrastructure Development Scheme where loans can be availed. Schools cannot impose compulsion on students and use their innocence to raise funds. Don’t force students to sell lotteries or tickets for shows that you organize and don’t make them spend on costly attire and perform on stage while you rake in the ‘mollah’.
The very fact that the department has not been able to check these wrongdoings all these years speak volumes of a flawed system. There need to be checks and balances and audits in place. The department cannot rest on the premise that a circular is issued, it has to play a pro-active role and get cracking.
