Intensifying its attack on the private schools of the city, the All Uttarakhand Parent's Association (AUPA) shot off a letter to the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani on Thursday complaining against consisting a list of 66 schools of Dehradun which according to it are not following the norms laid down under the Right to Education (RTE) act.
The association claims that these schools have not constituted Parents Teachers Association (PTA) mandatory under RTE act and are not recommending the textbooks of National Council Education Research and Training (NCERT) to the students as per the provisions of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
The association had earlier sent a letter to Irani which was forwarded to CBSE for necessary action. The CBSE on July 28dispatched a letter to the association stating that all the schools affiliated under it are bound to follow the rules of RTE. However the letter said that CBSE is not in a position to take action against any particular school as the association has not named any school in the letter. The response of the board would now be keenly watched as the association has listed 66 schools alleging that they are not following the rules.
The President of the association, Neeraj Singhal told The Pioneer that the association after proper research has submitted the list of offending schools. He said that according to the provisions of the RTE, every school should have a PTA in which equal representation of both the parents and teachers should be there but none of the listed school have the PTA.
Singhal further alleged that CBSE mandates that the schools affiliated under it should recommend only the book of NCERT to its students. He alleged that these schools are having books of private publishers which are very expensive and are of inferior quality to the NCERT books. The private schools are not keen to prescribe the books of NCERT as the private publishers offer hefty commissions to them in lieu of recommending their books.
The schools however are refuting these charges and have termed them baseless. The Principal of the Pestle Weed school, Prem Kashyap said CBSE mandates that every school should have a management committee in which two parents of the students of that school should be members.
He claimed that the school is following all the norms. Kashyap, who also is the President of the 'Progressive Schools Association' (PPSA), said that the purpose of the AUPA is to ensure that their members who are not parents of the students of the school are pushed into the school committees.
The Chairman of the Doon International School (DIS), D S Mann also refuted the charges of the parent's association and said that the DIS school strictly adheres to NCERT books. He said that the DIS is a minority institution and provisions of RTE are not binding on it.