The members of All Uttarakhand Parents Association (AUPA) organised a protest outside the office of Chief Education Officer (CEO) of Dehradun on Friday. On the day, parents of the Indian Academy School, Ring Road, Nehru Gram headed by general secretary of the AUPA, Ratan Singh Chauhan organised the demonstration. later a delegation met a District Education Officer (DEO) elementary education, Meharban Singh Bisht and handed over a memorandum.
The parents alleged that the Indian Academy School increased it fees arbitrarily last year on which the parents objected. On the intervention of district education authorities the school management rolled back the fees hike and promised that the fees would not be increased for next three years. The parents of this school alleged that irrespective of the assurance the school authorities have again hiked the fee this year which is not acceptable to them.
The parents charged the education department officers for not heeding to the problems faced the general public. They alleged that the private school owners are continuing to harass the parents and when they complain about these schools, the authorities look other way.
The DEO assured the delegation that the issue of fees increase by the school is in his notice and he would take appropriate action on it.
The AUPA is also protesting against the insistence of the private school owners to recommend the books of private publishers. They argue that the schools should adopt the books of National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) only as they are better in quality and content besides being much cheaper than the books of private publishers.
The parents also charged the private school owners for exploiting the parents by insisting to buy the uniforms and stationery from select shops only.