It’s a fight against public schools’ exorbitant fees
Basudev Bhatta is a social activists and a whistleblower. After his graduation from the BJB College in 1994, he took to social work wherein he found great delight.
A Good Samaritan, he had served cyclone and flood-affected people of Puri and Cuttack districts and reached out to people of Erasama and Paradip during the 1999 Super Cyclone leading various student and youth groups.
Now as a Rotarian, he is coming to the aid of heart and cancer patients. He is also the chairperson of Odisha Avibhabak Mahasangha (OAM) engaged in shielding the rights of parents, guardians and students as and when needed.
The huge hiatus between the public schools fee structures and the capacity of the common man have shocked him, for which he is revolting against such exploitation. In an interview to The Pioneer, Bhatta spoke to Sugyan Choudhury on the ills afflicting our education system.
When was the Odisha Avibhabak Mahasangha formed and how many are its members?
It was constituted in the year 2015-16 and as many as 35,000 parents and guardians are its members. It is constituted to protect and defend the rights of parents and their children.
We achieved a great success while fighting against the arbitrary actions of the CBSE when it expelled 13,500 students from Odisha. We took the leadership at the national level. Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Dharmendra Pradhan and our Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik intervened in the issue and it was solved. The OAM has its branches in all 30 districts of Odisha. We have medical, engineering and pharmacy students’ wings too. We are connected by 120 WhatsApp groups.
What is the reason of our educational system still remaining moribund?
The Indira Gandhi Government had introduced a national education policy in 1968. The Kothari Commissioner had submitted a detailed report to streamline the educational system; and the report is so holistic in nature that no second commission was needed.
But no substantial improvement has been done so far due to non- implementation of this report. In 1986, the Rajiv Gandhi Government introduce the next education policy that had a vision like Black Board Operation, open university system and quality education for the deprived sections of students including SC,ST, but nothing has yet been done so far.
In 2019, the Modi Government has introduced a new education policy under the chairmanship of K Kasturi Nandan, former ISRO chief. But what is revealing is that only 4% of the nation’s GDP is utilised towards improvements of education.
How then could then we hope for quality education? Everywhere in Odisha and in India, there is violation of Article 21(A) of the Constitution. We are happy that the OAM as a potential organisation is all poised to fight a battle for realisation of our Constitutional rights in the education system.
Do you think the Right to Education (RTE) Act with 25% reservation has been implemented in Odisha?
In 2002, the Vajpayee Government had amended Article 21 (A) making the provision for free and compulsory education for children from 6 years to 14 years. In 2009, the UPA Government under Manmohan Singh amended the Act and it was introduced in the year 2010 in Odisha.
But only 50% of the implementation has been done with the other 50% of the RTE Act drawing a blank so far.
We have been fighting hard over the last two years for implementation of 25% reservation meant for Disadvantaged Group (DG 10%) and Economically Weaker Section (15%). Previous ministers and bureaucrats have failed.
This time, we are glad that a dynamic officer like Satyabrata Sahu, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, has taken a very firm decision towards the RTE implementation from this year. Consequently, there will be an online system for admission to schools. You have a choice of a numbers of schools before you. This way, as many as 60,000 students of Odisha belonging to DG group and weaker section shall get free education.
What are the RTE violations you have come across in public schools?
The glaring example of RTE violations of humongous magnitude have been perpetuated amounting to around Rs 300 crore over the last decade by the DAV Schools’ managements, which have sold the vacant seats meant for the Disadvantaged Group and weaker sections (total 25%) for each seat extracting to the tune of Rs 4 to 5 lakh on the management quota.
We have moved the Government in this regard and filed a case. The second corruption of DAV Schools is that they are taking Rs 2 lakh from each student for readmission to Std-XI after the Std-X examination, which is highly illegal.
If the student is of the same school then while taking admission in the Std-XI they can only make a hike of 8% over the last year fees. The OAM shall fight against it in all possible ways, including legal battle.
We have started a movement against arbitrary enhancement of school fees by private managements. There are 57 DAV Public Schools in Odisha which have enhanced their fees exorbitantly.
We have moved court, which has appointed Justice KP Mohapatra commission of inquiry which has already submitted its report to the State Government. There have been allegations against huge exploitations by the DAV Schools since they have byelaws of their own.
If a student pays a huge amount to ttake admission in LKG then in the subsequent years what is the need for readmission? Then they are charging development fees, reconstruction fees, day boarding fees, transportation fees and the like.
It is understood that the DAV Schools have enhanced their fees by 35% each year. Some schools like Narayani, Xavier and some DAV schools of Sundargarh, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Talcher, Kanhia have gone to enhance their fees by 37%.
We have raised the compliant to the District Magistrates and the Government and, accordingly, a committee under chairmanship of Director, Secondary Education was constituted for determining the fee structures of the private schools.
Finally, it was agreed upon by all parties, including the OAM, that 8% of hike in fees shall be made considering 2016-17 as the base year.
During the Covid pandemic, there are no school activities over the last seven months. The OAM have moved the High Court to waive all fees on the line “No school, no fees” and the court’s judgement is expected on September 22.
Earlier, the court had directed the Government for an amicable settlement and, accordingly, all parties have signed an MoU with the Government under the chairmanship of Commissioner-cum- Secretary, School and Mass Education, and the matter was submitted to the High Court.