School uniform deals ‘rip off ’parents

Charu Chhibber

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 6

The UT Education Department’s failure to rein in city’s private schools is evident yet again. With the start of the winter session in the schools, parents are being forced to shell out thousands of rupees on full sets of uniform even if just one or two items are required.

“The schools are trying irrelevant methods to earn money. My daughter studies in a Sector 46 school. The school authorities had asked me to purchase winter uniform from their vendor in Sector 22. He is forcing me to buy the complete set. We are not allowed to buy an upper or a lower, only a complete set can be purchased. This is an unfair trade practice by the vendor and the school,” rued advocate Sartaj Khan.

Another parent Renu, whose ward studies in a Sector 41 school, lamented that a designated uniform vendor forced her to purchase the full set of uniform even though only a pullover was what she wanted to buy for her son. “I had to shell out Rs 2,500 for the full set while the cost of pullover is just about Rs 800,” she said.

“Not only this, the vendor even forced me to buy branded shoes for Rs 1,000 from his footwear shop next door,” she said, adding that the vendors and the schools were hand-in-glove in this unfair trade practice to mint money by harassing parents.

Parent of a student at a Sector 26 school said, “School managements have an arrangement with the vendors and get commission. We have no choice but to cough up this huge amount.”

Sanjeev Rana, another parent, narrated a similar tale. “The authorities must take strict action against the schools and the vendors that are ripping off parents in the name of uniforms and books. Due to such unfair practices, the education has become an economical burden on the middle class families,” he said.

Many school managements that Chandigarh Tribune spoke to justified the ‘arrangement’. According to them, it aimed at bringing uniformity and to facilitate ‘ease of buying’ for parents. But none of them could explain the unfair practice of forcing full set of uniform on parents by designated vendors.

"This is misinformation. There are three to four stores available for every school. Why will anyone force any parent to buy anything and loose the business?" said HS Mamik, president, Independent Schools' Association, Chandigarh.

Meanwhile, Director of the School Education Rubinderjit Singh Brar and Education Secretary Sarvjit Singh did not respond to the messages.

However, on several earlier occasions, the DSE has expressed the departments’ inability to rein in private schools. “Tell me anything about government schools and I will make it happen but do not expect anything from me as far as private schools are concerned,” the DSE had said on an earlier occasion on the issue of long-pending action against the schools found guilty of profiteering.