Fed up with the indifferent attitude of the State Government over the ‘open loot’ by the private school owners, the Uttarakhand Parents Association has knocked at the doors of the High Court.
The association has filed a petition in HC asking it to enforce the Government Order (GO) regarding the private schools in its right spirit.
The president of the association, Niraj Singhal told The Pioneer that the petition was accepted by High Court on Friday and first hearing was slated on May 20.
He said the association had made the Uttarakhand Government, State Education department, Central Government and 10 schools of State as party in the case.
Singhal said the association wanted that the ‘GO’ according to which the education department gives No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the private schools, should be applicable in letter and spirit. The ‘GO’ entails that the private schools would not arbitrarily increase their fees every year. The other demand of the association is that a ‘fee regulatory body’ should be constituted and its decision should be binding on all private schools of the state. Similarly all the private schools should be forced to implement only the books of National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) as they are cheap and good in content. The parents association is also demanding that the private schools should constitute Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) so that some sort of control is observed on the activities of these schools. The ten schools which are made party by the association include SGRR academy, Convent of Jesus and Mary school, Heritage School and Children’s Academy of Dehradun.
Singhal said that the association has adopted every democratic means of registering its protest but it appears that the state government and state education department are working hand in glove with the private school owners as they have done nothing to stop these schools from exploiting hapless parents.