Protesting against the private schools not complying with the order of providing only National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) books to the students, Aam Aadami Party ( AAP) activists staged a sit-in outside the State Education directorate on Friday.
The workers accompanied by some parents of the school children reached the venue and staged the demonstration. They said that the people of the State are fuming over the State Education Department’s inaction regarding the private schools which are mounting pressure on the parents to purchase of two sets of textbooks, one of NCERT and the other of the private publishers chosen by the school managements. “In such a situation, the parents are ending up spending double on getting the textbooks for their children,” said AAP Dehradun Mahanagar president Ashok Semwal.
Earlier, led by Semwal, the protestors gathered at the office of the education director and started demonstration against the alleged apathy of the State Government in reining in the managements of the private schools which are fleecing the parents with impunity in defiance of the government order.
Semwal said that it is very unfortunate that the private schools are not paying any heed to the order of the State Government regarding the compulsory purchase of the NCERT books. “It is more unfortunate that the State Government is doing nothing to make them to fall in line. Consequently, the parents are being made to spend double on buying two sets of text books for their children. The books of the private publishers cost high,” he said.
A delegation later handed over a memorandum addressed to the director of school education to the deputy director Nagendra Bartwal.
AAP threatened of a full-blown movement in the coming days if the private school operators are not prevented by the State Government from fleecing the parents in the name of the text books through the memorandum submitted on Friday.