With the new academic session starting from April 1, the private schools of Dehradun are back to what they are most proficient — to make undue demands of money from the parents of their students. The common people are perturbed as these schools are arbitrarily foisting increased fees and demanding money in the name of readmission, development charges and so on.
Most of the schools demand fresh admission fees from the parents when the students ascend from Class KG to I, Class V to Class VI, Class VIII to IX and from Class X to XI. Recently the parents of one of leading school of the city were flabbergasted when the school asked every student to contribute Rs500 for celebrating birthday of the Principal.
Arti Balodi, a resident of MDDA Kedarpuram said that the demands for money in name of tours, annual function or celebrating any occasion are common. She said that though the parents get annoyed by such demands but they have no other option but to fulfill them.
However many parents have started asserting against the hegemony of the private school owners. On Wednesday, the members of All Uttarakhand Parents Association gathered at the office Block Education Officer (BEO), Raipur and protested against the education department’s inaction on the issue.
The members handed over a memorandum to the officiating BEO Gopal Chaubey and demanded that the orders of Chief Education Officer (CEO) on preventing the private schools from arbitrarily increasing the fees should be implemented. The members of the association threatened to intensify the agitation if step to rein in the private schools is not taken within seven days.
The president of the Association Niraj Singhal told The Pioneer that acting on the orders of District Magistrate of Dehradun the CEO of Dehradun has issued orders to all BEOs to ensure that the fees charged by the private schools are as per the guidelines, similarly all the private schools were compulsorily asked to the constitute a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in their school.
When contacted the CEO of Dehradun S P Khali said that the orders of the DM would be enforced strictly. He said that department would soon start a helpline like last year where the parents can register their grievances against the private schools.