The stern message to private school operators by the education department asking them to refrain from charging readmission fees and caution money from the parents of the students has started yielding results. The biggest organisation of the private schools , the Principals’ Progressive Schools Association has written a letter to Director General (DG) education in which it claimed that after the recent Government Order (GO) on Readmission fees and caution money, no school is charging the aforementioned fees. It, however, clarified that the schools are levying Refundable Caution Money from the parents which would be refunded to the student when he/ she leaves the school.
The president of the association, Prem Kashyap said that action should be taken against the school which is found charging re -admission fee and caution money.
The education department is naturally elated over the development. The Director General (DG) of the school education, Captain Alok Shekhar Tiwari (Rtd) has said that parents should complain to the department if any school is found charging re -admission fees and caution money. He has asked all Chief Education Officers (CEO) of all districts to remain alert and act on any complaint of parents on the issue.
On the intervention of the State Education Minister Arvind Pandey the education department acted tough on the private schools. The State administration released a GO mandating that no readmission and caution fee should be charged from the students.
In Dehradun district the department adopted a proactive approach on the issue. The department contituted a ten member team consisting of district education officers (DEO), Block Education Officers (BEO) and senior Principals of Government Inter Colleges. Each officer was assigned some schools. These officers visited the schools and addressed the complaints of parents on the spot. The department officials informed that the need of constitution of the team was necessitated following lukewarm response of parents on the department’s plea that they should lodge written complaints in case they observe any anomaly. The department also carried out advertisements in local newspapers informing the public about provisions of Right to Education (RTE) and GO of State Government on readmission fees and caution money. Impressed by the model adopted by the education department in Dehradun, the State Education Minister Arvind Pandey asked the officials to implement Dehradun model in all the districts of the State.