After the State Capital, the public anger over the dictatorial attitude of the private school operators has spread to small towns and adjoining areas. Harassed parents have joined together to form units of the All Uttarakhand Parents Association in areas like Rishikesh, Doiwala, Vikasnagar and Bhanyawala to fight the hegemony of the private schools.
The agitation of parents against private schools was more or less concentrated to city limits of Dehardun and Haldwani till recently but now parents of other small towns have also joined the movement. On Sunday a meeting of Parents association was held at Jeevan Mai Dharamshala in Rishkesh which was attended by many parents. Similar meetings were organized at Guru Ravidas Temple Bapu Gram Rishikesh and Milan Kendra Bhaniyawala. The parents at all these meetings pledged to fight against the arbitrary increase in fees, demanding money in the name of development charge or any other names and forcing them to buy books and stationery from specific shops.
The state president of All Uttarakhand Parents Association Niraj Singhal confirmed that parents from small towns have also started to raise their voice against the private schools. He said that the problems faced by people in smaller towns are similar to that of those faced in the cities. Singhal said that the units in small towns would be provided full support by them. The formation of units of parents association in smaller towns is indicative of widespread resentment against the private school operators among the people of the state. The Parents association is pressing for the implementation of Government Order which restricts private schools from increasing fees every year. The members also demand that the district administration should force the private schools to implement only the books of National Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) as they are cheap and good in content. The parents association is also of the view that the private schools should constitute Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) so that some sort of control is observed on the activities of these schools.