The All Uttarakhand Parents Association (AUPA) has criticised the statement of State Education minister Arvind Pandey in which he had advocated action against the private schools from the next academic session.
A meeting of the AUPA was organised in the provincial State capital on Tuesday. The general secretary of the association, Sudesh Uniyal said that by issuing such a statement the education minister has given a carte blanche to the private schools to engage in open loot for one year. He said that if the State Government is really concerned for the parents then it should act immediately. Uniyal gave the example of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh which has given immediate relief to the people on the issue.
Coming down heavily on the statement of minister, the President of the association Neeraj Singhal said that if the State Government is really honest and wants to implement slab based fee structure for private schools then it should implement it with immediate effect.
He said that if the State Government fails to act on the hegemony of the private schools then the people of the State would descend on the roads and start an agitation.
Singhal demanded that the State Government should get the draft of the private schools regulatory authority cleared from the State assembly.
The previous Congress Government had made the draft but under intense pressure from the powerful lobby of private school owners the bill was never tabled in the assembly.
The education minister Arvind Pandey on Monday had said that the Government wants that the schools should charge not more than Rs 15000 per year from the students of Class I to V. Similarly for classes VIII to IX the schools should charge maximum fees of Rs 20000 while for classes IX to XII the maximum fee is kept at Rs 30000 per year.
However, giving relief to schools the education minister said that the proposed fee structure would be implemented from next academic session.