Fee row: Parents go on hunger strike

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 27

To put pressure on the Education Department and district administration to take action against private schools for charging exorbitant amount of money in the name of annual charges and funds, members of the Parents’ Rights Association, Bathinda, today began a hunger strike.

They staged a protest at Arya Samaj Chowk late this afternoon.

Addressing the protesters, district president of the union, Rohit Sharma, said the Education Department was partially responsible for giving the private schools leeway to make parents cough up huge money at the time of admission every year.

“The Education Department lacks the courage to tighten the noose around the private schools, which are openly flouting all norms laid down by the Central Board of Secondary Association (CBSE) and other boards these schools are affiliated to. By engaging in commercial activities and admitting more students than prescribed, the schools also violating the terms of the Right to Education Act 2009,” he said.

Although the admission procedure of most of the schools of the city are over and classes for the new academic session have begun, the association is demanding that the private schools must not charge any capitation fee, annual fund, increased tuition fee, computer education charges, development and examination fee every year at the time of admission and the schools must stop forcing parents to buy books and uniforms from the school.

Rohit Sharma, who went on the hunger strike today, said the parents also wanted that the students must not be taught from books of private publishers and instead be taught from the books prescribed by the boards.

The members of the association also accused the district administration of not arriving at a concrete solution to their problems.

They said the schools had devised a way out for making money by striking deals with book sellers and uniform sellers in the city.

The books and uniform sellers now give the schools a part of the profit, the association members alleged.

Raising slogans against the private schools, the protesters announced that they would continue to sit on the hunger strike till the Education Department took action against the erring schools.