Kanpur Schools Parents Association

Sunday 09/10/11- Aam Admi Dharna at Rajghat from 10 am to 1 pm

2011-10-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

Sunday 09/10/11- Aam Admi Dharna at Rajghat from 10 am to 1 pm demanding Education Reforms -

Please join and also tell your friends and relatives to join Dharna with family.

and friends from Haryana have agreed to join Dharna at Rajgath. Please circulate it widely.

Adv Ashok Agarwal, National President, All India Parents Association (AIPA) Mob. 09811101923

Family unable to pay fees, Class VIII boy hangs self

2011-02-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

“I love you mom and dad. I am sorry for the mistake”.

These were the last words of 15-year-old Aljin, a student of Class VIII, whose body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room by his mother on Thursday morning.

According to the family, the boy was depressed over his father’s inability to pay the school fees and the thought that he would not be able to continue studies.

The boy was found hanging at 8.30 am in the DDA Janta Flats in Hastsal, West Delhi. He was a student of Adarsh Public School in Vikaspuri.

Aljin’s father P V Varghese claimed that the school had earlier assured the family that their child’s education would be free of cost, but later went back on the promise. School authorities, he claimed, told the family that they would have to pay the fee for the next two months.

School authorities were not available for comment.

Aljin’s mother had earlier worked in the school as a staff nurse. Her services were terminated five years ago.

“Five years ago, the school management asked her to leave but said our son would be allowed to continue his studies free of cost till Class XII,” Varghese claimed.

Varghese works at an automobile company while his wife now works as a nurse at a nursing home in the locality.

“We were not in a position to pay the fees of Rs 12,000 upfront for the next two months,” Varghese said.

Again Fees Hike in 2011

2011-02-04T07:37:00.000-08:00

After increased fees in name of 6th Pay commission now school again 3rd time .

No Law in country or no regularization.

What parents have options.....................................................................................

Loksabha27jan2011part1- Ashok Aggarwal S L Jain Dr Sachin Dr Rajshekhar Sumit Vohra

2011-01-30T06:55:00.001-08:00

Fees Hike Press Release By UP School Management MahaSabha

2011-01-30T06:41:00.000-08:00

Press Release

Fees Hike 10-15 % in next Session

Justice for Baby Divya:Alert kanpurites Delegation meet DM

2010-10-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

DM Camp Office 10.10.2010 At 10.10 AM

Justice to Baby Divya:Alerts Kanpurites join hands

2010-10-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hindustan Times 09.10.2010

Schhol buses

2010-08-20T05:21:00.001-07:00

Scchool Bag Or a Baggage

2010-08-20T05:18:00.001-07:00

Facts to know ?????????

2010-08-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

Delhi Govt. can conduct audit of Schools But last three Financial year only 25 Schools audit conducted.
Nor the audit for the year 2009-10 has been conducted as yet for such schools, nor there is proposal presently to conduct audit of more schools at this stage.

The Audit of Schools conducted as per provisions :

The Constitution of India.

CHAPTER V.—COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR-GENERAL OF INDIA

Article 149. Duties and powers of the Comptroller and Auditor-General.
—The Comptroller and Auditor-General shall perform such duties and exercise such powers in relation to the accounts of the Union and of the States and of any other authority or body as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, shall perform such duties and exercise such powers in relation to the accounts of the Union and of the States as were conferred on or exercisable by the Auditor-General of India immediately before the commencement of this Constitution in relation to the accounts of the Dominion of India and of the Provinces respectively.

The Delhi Education Act,1973

18 (5) The managing committee of every recognised private school shall file every year with
the Director such duly audited financial and other returns as may be prescribed, and every such return shall be audited by such authority as may be prescribed.

The Delhi School Education Rule,1973

Rule 170 & 180(3)

Happy Independence Day...................

2010-08-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

We are Celebrating another Year of FREEDOM...............

PATRIOTISM IS OUR CONVICTION BECAUSE WE WERE BORN IN INDIA.

HOPE THAT THE PROUD MOTHERLAND GIVES ALL OF US PLENTY OF STRENGTH, HAPPINESS, PROSPERITY AND GOOD FUTURE NOW AND FOREVER.

Wish You all a Very Happy Independence Day...................

PRIVATE SCHOOLS FALL UNDER RTI ACT

2010-08-05T02:04:00.000-07:00

WHENEVER WE HAVE APPROACHED THE DIRECTORATE OF EDUCATION, WE WERE VERBALLY TOLD BY THE

RESPECTIVE EDUCATION OFFICER OR DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION THAT PRIVATE SCHOOLS DO NOT FALL UNDER THEIR AMBIT, HENCE THEY CANNOT DEMAND INFORMATION.

THIS WAS THE WRONG IMPRESSION CREATED FOR DECADES AND THAT IS WHY DOE AND ITS CORRUPT OFFICIALS INCLUDING DOE HIMSELF (WHO JUST WRITE LETTER FOR FORMALITY SAKE).

Cases Pending in Allahabad High Court from last July,2010

2010-08-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

33818 Allahabad Bench	U.P. Vidyalaya Prabhandhak Samiti,kanpur
38522	Delhi Public School,Varanasi
38523	St.John School,Varanasi
36841	Delhi Public School and 8 Other Gautam Budhnagar
36952	Darbari Lal Foundation,Ghaziabad
38168	Amity Public School,Ghaziabad
38170	Khaitan Public School,Ghaziabad
38401	Cambridge School, Gautam Budh Nagar
39183	Modern School
39609	Durga Public School,Gorakhpur
39610	Ratna Mem Public School,Gorakhpur
39693	Harihar Singh Memorial Academy, Tisaura, Varanasi
39869	Apeejay Education Society, Gautam Budhnagar
40505/2009	Delhi Public School, Yamunapuram, Bulandshahar
4009/2009 Lucknow Bench	Dr.Virendra Swaroop Education centre,kanpur
45457	Saharanpur public school,Saharanpur 26/8/2009
48282	Guru Tegbahadur Public School,sadar,Meerut 7/9/2009
50038	Bal Mukund Ram Chandra Bajari Sarawaati Vidya Mandir,Agra 15/9/2009
50120	Modern Era Public School,Bijnor 15/9/2009
50758	Stepping Stones School, MUZAFFAR NAGAR 16/9


69063/2009	All Parents welfare Association	CBSE & Others

Justice delayed ,justice denied.

Still we are not getting response form Allahabad court.

Taking case in court and dead U.P.Govt machinery creating wealth for CBSE schools in U.P..

No governing law and no implementation of any law regarding schools.

One year have been passed in court.

Total 21 cases pending in highcourt.

This pendency helps schools to increase /Hike fees twice session.
means ghapla of 100's cr.

Subsidized Land purchased by schools

2010-08-03T00:24:00.000-07:00

Public School ki Dadagiri

2010-08-03T00:04:00.000-07:00

SOP

2010-08-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Cane students

2010-08-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

All Bypass Supreme Court Order

2010-07-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

11 July,2010 Hindustan Times

Obsolete Buses Ferrying Students

2010-07-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hinustan Times, July 09,2009

Bus Fee Hike

2010-07-10T05:44:00.001-07:00

Hindustan Times 7 July,2010

स्कूल का बड़ा नाम, फर्जीवाड़े के सारे काम

2010-06-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

नेशनल विक्टर स्कूल की ऑडिट जांच रिपोर्ट में श्रम कानूनों का भी ब़ड़े स्तर पर उल्लंघन पाया गया है। स्कूल एक ओर इतनी ब़ड़ी तादाद में कर्मचारियों को वेतन, भत्तों और बकाया का भुगतान करता रहा। पर अप्रैल २००२ से दिसंबर २००९ के बीच स्कूल की ओर से केवल छह से १५ कर्मचारियों का ही भविष्य निधि में योगदान किया। स्कूल को दिल्ली स्कूल शिक्षा अधिनियम की धारा ४ और १० के उल्लंघन के लिए दंडित किया जा सकता है। रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक स्कूल ने वेतन, भत्तों, आय-व्यय, शिक्षक और गैर शिक्षक कर्मचारियों की संख्या की झूठी जानकारी दी है।
हीरेन्द्र सिंह राठौ़ड़
पूर्वी दिल्ली। क्या सेवा निवृत्त हो चुके या नौकरी छो़ड़कर जाने के बाद कर्मचारियों को कोई संस्थान नया भुगतान करता है। शायद नहीं। पर यह कमाल दिल्ली के ब़ड़े पब्लिक स्कूल कर रहे हैं। अभिभावकों से भारी फीस वसूलने के बाद उसका फर्जी खर्च दिखाकर मोटी कमाई की जा रही है। यह स्कूल केवल कानून की धज्जियां ही नहीं उ़ड़ा रहे बल्कि आयकर कानूनों को भी ठेंगा दिखा रहे हैं।
पटप़ड़गंज स्थित नेशनल विक्टर पब्लिक स्कूल ने २००६ से २००९ के बीच ५५ लाख ५० हजार रुपए का भुगतान बियरर चेकों के द्वारा कर दिया। इनमें से ज्यादातर कर्मचारी या तो फर्जी हैं, नौकरी छो़ड़कर जा चुके हैं। या फिर सेवा निवृत्त हो चुके हैं। रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक छठे वेतन आयोग की सिफारिशों और शिक्षक व गैर शिक्षक कर्मचारियों को को भुगतान दिखाकर खातों में भारी घोटाला किया गया है।
यह खुलासा नियंत्रक और महालेखा परीक्षक की "लेखा जांच रिपोर्ट" में किया गया है। नईदुनिया के हाथ लगे दस्तावेजों के मुताबिक २००६ से २००९ के बीच स्कूल ने ११३ कर्मचारियों की छंटनी की और ६१ नए कर्मचारी रखे। वेतन आयोग की सिफारिशों को लागू करने के लिए स्कूल ने ४० फीसदी बकाया के रूप में ४० लाख ४ हजार रुपए का भुगतान का पूर्वानुमान लगाया। ६५ कर्मचारी ऐसे थे जो पहले ही नौकरी छो़ड़कर जा चुके थे। खातों में उनको भी ८.३२ लाख रुपए का भुगतान दिखाया गया है। १३ ऐसे फर्जी कर्मचारियों को ४.८० लाख रुपए दे दिए गए जिनका कोई रिकार्ड मौजूद ही नहीं था।

भुगतान किए गए ५५ लाख ५० हजार रुपए में से ११२ पूर्व कर्मचारियों को २३,३७,५०५ रुपए और ६० कार्यरत कर्मचारियों को ३२,१२,४५४ रुपए का भुगतान दिखाया गया है। खास बात यह है कि स्कूल की ओर से पूरी राशि का भुगतान बियरर चेक से किया गया है। इनमें से २१ कर्मचारियों के हस्ताक्षरों तक का मिलान नहीं हो सका। जांच रिपोर्ट में कहा गया है कि स्कूल किसी भी कर्मचारी का सेवा रिकार्ड उपलब्ध नहीं करा सका। आशंका है कि यह भुगतान किसी कर्मचारी किया ही नहीं गया। लेखा विभाग के जांच अधिकारियों ने स्कूल के १९ कर्मचारियों के सितंबर २००६ और अक्टूबर २००७ दो माह के "सर्विस रिकार्ड" की जांच में आठ कर्मचारी फर्जी पाए। जबकि इस दौरान स्कूल ने अपनी इन्हीं कर्मचारियों को तीन लाख रुपए का भुगतान कर दिया।
ऑडिट जांच रिपोर्ट में स्कूल द्वारा छठे वेतन आयोग की सिफारिशें लागू करने के लिए बच्चों से ३००० से ३५०० रुपए तक वसूले जाने और स्कूल द्वारा उपलब्ध स्थानों से ज्यादा बच्चों को प्रवेश दिए जाने पर भी गंभीर आपत्ति की गई है॥ स्कूल की ओर से कमजोर वर्ग के बच्चों को मुफ्त शिक्षा के मामले में भी अनियमितता बरती गई है।

नामी स्कूलों को हाईकोर्ट के आदेशों की परवाह नहीं

2010-06-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

नई दिल्ली। दिल्ली के बड़े-बड़े स्कूलों के लिए हाई कोर्ट और शिक्षा निदेशालय के नियम-कायदे कोई मायने नहीं रखते। गरीब बच्चों को दाखिला देने, स्कूल के शिक्षकों-कर्मचारियों के बच्चों को दाखिला देने, अभिभावक-शिक्षकों की बैठक, स्कूल का व्यावसायिक उपयोग, छठे वेतन आयोग की सिफारिशों के मद्देनजर ज्यादा फीस वसूलना, शिक्षकों को वेतन आयोग की सिफारिशों के अनुसार तरक्की न देना, शिक्षकों की नियुक्ति में मनमानी, बिल्डिंग फंड, विकास शुल्क और अन्य मदों में ज्यादा रकम वसूलना जैसे मामले नियंत्रक और महालेखा परीक्षक की ऑडिट रिपोर्ट में उजागर किए हैं।

सीएजी ने २५ स्कूलों के पिछले खातों और कागजातों की जांच में कई खामियां निकाली हैं। नईदुनिया को मिली सीएजी की रिपोर्ट से एक बात साफ जाहिर होती है कि दिल्ली सरकार के शिक्षा विभाग के निर्देशों की स्कूलों को कोई परवाह नहीं है। साथ ही हाईकोर्ट के दिए आदेश भी स्कूलों ने मानने लायक नहीं समझे। सीएजी ने जांच के दौरान यह भी पाया कि ज्यादातर स्कूल बच्चों को दाखिला देते समय लेने वाली जमानत राशि भी स्कूल छोड़ने के समय वापस नहीं करते हैं।

सीएजी ने राजधानी के २५ स्कूलों, कांवेंट ऑफ जीसस एंड मैरी स्कूल बंगला साहिब रोड, सेंट जेवियर्स सीनियर सेकेंडरी स्कूल, राजनिवास मार्ग, जीडी सलवान पब्लिक स्कूल, दिल्ली पब्लिक स्कूल आरके पुरम, मदर डिवाइन पब्लिक स्कूल रोहिणी, फ्रेंक एंथनी पब्लिक स्कूल लाजपत नगर, नेशनल विक्टर पब्लिक स्कूल पटपड़गंज, समरफील्ड स्कूल कैलाश कॉलोनी, बिरला विद्या निकेतन, माउंट कारमेल स्कूल आनंद, जेडी टाइटलर स्कूल राजेन्द्र नगर, रामजस पब्लिक स्कूल आरके पुरम, साधु वासवानी इंटरनेशनल स्कूल फार गर्ल्स सरदार पटेल विद्यालय , सचदेवा पब्लिक स्कूल पीतमपुरा, माडर्न स्कूल बाराखंभा, सेंट मैरी सीनियर सैकेंडरी स्कूल मयूर विहार, एयर फोर्स बालभारती स्कूल लोधी रोड, महाराजा अग्रसेन मॉडल स्कूल पीतमपुरा, एमिटी इंटरनेशनल स्कूल साकेत, प्रेजेन्टनेशन कांवेंटस्कूल श्यामा प्रसाद मुखर्जी मार्ग, रेयान इंटरनेशनल स्कूल मयूर विहार फेज तीन, जीडी गोयनका पब्लिक स्कूल वसंत कुंज और वसंत वैली स्कूल वसंत कुंज के २००६ से २००९ तक के खातों और दस्तावेजों की जांच की। सीएजी ने ज्यादातर स्कूलों की ऑडिट रिपोर्ट में टिप्पणी की है कि स्कूल प्रबंधन ने रिकार्ड छिपाने की कोशिश की। कुछ स्कूलों ने रिकार्ड देने में कई तरह की बहानेबाजी की। सीएजी ने पाया कि गरीब बच्चों को दाखिला देने में भी स्कूलों ने कोई तरजीह नहीं दी। इस बारे में हाईकोर्ट ने दिल्ली के सभी स्कूलों में दस फीसदी सीटों पर एक लाख से कम आय वाले परिवारों को बच्चों को दाखिला देने के आदेश दिए हैं। जांच रिपोर्ट में पाया गया है कि स्कूलों ने कम आय वर्ग के बच्चों को दाखिला देने के लिए फार्म उपलब्ध कराना तक मुनासिब नहीं समझा। एक-दो स्कूलों ने सीएजी टीम को कागजात तक उपलब्ध नहीं कराए।

http://epaper.naidunia.com/Details.aspx?edorsup=Sup&queryed=14&querypage=1&boxid=27291210&id=156613&eddate=06/21/2010

NEED OF THE HOUR:LAW TO CHECK ARBITRARY FEE HIKE IN UNAIDED SCHOOLS

2010-06-01T02:09:00.000-07:00

GOVERNMENT MUST BRING A CENTRAL LAW ON THE LINES OF TAMIL NADU SCHOOLS (REGULATION OF COLLECTION OF FEE) ACT, 2009

Ashok Agarwal, lawyer & civil rights activis

After the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s Order of 11.05.2010 dismissing Special Leave Petitions of several Unaided Private Schools of the State of Tamil Nadu challenging the Madras High Court Judgment of 09.04.2010 upholding the constitutional validity of the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009 (in short, Tamil Nadu Act, 2009) and The Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Rules, 2009, the Central Government now in public interest must bring a national law immediately on the lines of Tamil Nadu Act, 2009 to check the menace of commercialization of education in unaided private schools all over the country and to protect the hapless parents and students from exploitation. The Apex Court has once again re-affirmed the law of the land that the capitation fee, exorbitant fee, profiteering, commercialization of education and exploitation of parents/students by the unaided private schools are impermissible in law and the Government has not only the powers but also the duty to regulate fee in these schools to prevent commercialization of education.
A Division Bench of the Madras High Court has delivered a landmark Judgment on 09.04.2010 dismissing all the writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Tamil Nadu Act, 2009 by holding that the scheme of the Act is in consonance with the law laid down by the Apex Court, and it by and large strikes a balance between the autonomy of the institutions and measures to be taken to prevent commercialization of education. “There are sufficient guidelines in the statute for either approving or fixing the fees. The procedure prescribed provides for appropriate opportunity to the managements. The Committee is headed by a retired High Court Judge. The minority institutions have also to maintain non-exploitative terms as held in P.A.Inamdar’s case. The impugned Act, therefore, cannot be said to be in any way in violation of Articles 19(1) (g) and 26 and 30 of the Constitution of India”, said the Hon’ble Judges.
The Tamil Nadu Act, 2009 was enacted in the backdrop of the fact that in the State of Tamil Nadu, there were about 5500 Nursery/Primary Schools, 4100 Matriculation Schools, 38 Anglo Indian Schools and 500 State Board Schools of Tamil Medium totaling to 10, 148 schools which were unaided. There was no uniformity in their fee structure and on the face of it large numbers of them were charging very high fees, which could not be justified. The Madras High Court while deciding the case has also taken note of the fact that the Government has placed on record considerable material showing that private schools charging exorbitant fees. The High Court has further taken note of the fact that large number of representations have been made by the Parents’ Associations all throughout the State against charging of high fees by particular schools and the news reports of agitation by parents at different places. It was, therefore, felt necessary to regulate their fees.
The salient features of the Tamil Nadu Act, 2009 are: (a) The Committee constituted under Section 5(1) for the purpose of determination of the fee shall be headed by a retired High Court Judge. (b) The Committee has to call upon the private institutions to place before it the proposed fee structure of the institution with all relevant documents and books of accounts for scrutiny within the period to be indicated by the Committee in the given notice. (c) After the receipt of the proposal from the concerned institution, the Committee has to verify as to whether the fee proposed by the Private School is justified and it does not amount to profiteering or charging of exorbitant fee. (d) In case the Committee is of the view that the fee structure proposed by the institution appears to be correct, taking note of the various facilities provided and that there was no profiteering or collection of exorbitant fee, it has to approve the fee structure. (e) In case the Committee is of the view that the fee structure forwarded by the institution is exorbitant and that there is an element of profiteering, the Committee has to determine some other fee. (f) While fixing some other fee, the Committee has to follow certain procedures taking into consideration the factors as found mentioned under Section 6(1) as well as Rule 3 of the Rules. (g) The determination of the fee as made by the Committee should be intimated to the concerned institution and there upon the institution has got a right to submit their objections within fifteen days. (h) The objection so submitted by the institution shall be examined by the Committee. The Committee has to consider it objectively. The Committee was not expected to reject the objection summarily. As per Section 7(4), the Committee shall have the powers to regulate its own procedure in all matters and it shall have all the powers of a Civil Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 regarding summoning and attendance of witness and related matters. Therefore, the Committee would be within their powers to get the factors verified in respect of the claim made by the institution, to approve their fee structure, as against the fee determined by the Committee. (i) The fee so prescribed would be in operation for a period of three years and at the end of such period, it would be open to the institution to make an application for revision of fees. (j) Under Section 3(2) no fee in excess of the fee determined by the Committee shall be collected in a private school and the punishment provided for contravention thereof is imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to seven years and with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees and the Court may, for any adequate and special reason to be mentioned in the judgment, impose a sentence of imprisonment for a term of less than three years. (k) The person convicted shall refund to the pupil from whom the excess fee was collected, such excess fee.
The Madras High Court in Para 21 of the Judgment noted, “The observation of the Supreme Court was against the Government fixing the rigid fee in respect of private institutions. The impugned Act, in no way fixes the rigid fee. It only calls upon the management to forward their fee structure with details as to how they arrive at such a fee structure. The main idea is to see as to whether under the guise of collection of fees they are indirectly collecting the capitation fee or indulging in profiteering. That is why the Act initially uses the term Approval of the fee structure and only in such cases where the committee is of the view that the fee structure proposed is exorbitant and is in the nature of capitation fee or profiteering, it intervenes in the matter and for the purpose of fixing the correct fee, the private institution is given liberty to specify their fee structure, taking into account the expenditure necessary for running the institution as well as its future needs. Thus, it proceeds to determine the fee structure thereafter. In that process, it considers the objections given by the management to the fees proposed by the Committee. The consideration of objections by the Committee cannot be treated as an empty formality. The Committee has to consider the objections made by the institution in an objective manner and if necessary, by inspecting the institution and calling upon the management to produce the records in their possession in respect of various facets and to arrive at a decision as to whether the fee determined by the Committee was the correct one or it requires modification. It cannot be ignored that the committee is a high powered committee headed by a retired High Court Judge”.
The Madras High Court in Para 35 of the Judgment while dealing with the contention of one of the petitioners that the Act runs counter to the policy of ‘common school system’ noted, ‘As can be seen from the judgment in T.M.A. Pai’s case and other cases, the Apex Court has taken cognizance of the fact that private contribution in the field of education is necessary, and Government is not in a position to have sufficient resources for providing education to all. If that is so, it is difficult to bring about a common school system. The Right to Education Act does not prevent private schools. The only thing, which is possible to be realized, is to bring in legislation of fees structure and to check exploitation in private schools, which is sought to be brought about and that being so, the Act cannot be criticized on that score”.
The Madras High Court in Para 36 of the Judgment while commenting on the reservation of 25 percent seats in the private schools for the children belonging to poor strata of society noted, “The Constitution (86^th Amendment) Act, 2002 has made elementary education a fundamental right under Article 21-A of the Constitution of India. The right to free and compulsory elementary education was a long felt need, which has now been given the status of a fundamental right. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 which came into force from 1^st April 2010 was a consequential legislation to translate the constitutional intent into action. The RTE Act, 2009 provides for 25% seats in private schools for children from poor families and prohibits donation or capitation fee. Though the RTE Act is Central Legislation, its effective implementation lies in the hands of the State Governments. While implementing the RTE Act from 1^st April 2010, the Government of India announced that 25 percent reservation for children from economically weaker sections of the society would be operational from Class I with effect from the academic year 2011. The present impugned legislation if examined in the context of Article 21-A of the Constitution of India and RTE Act is also valid”.
It is interesting to note that the parents all over the country have been raising voices against the inaction on the part of the Central and State Governments to check the menace of commercialization of education in unaided private schools. In 1997, on the pretext of 5th Pay Commission Recommendations, the unaided private schools in Delhi increased fee and other charges ranging from 40% to 400%. This gave rise to unrest amongst the middle class parents and the parents organized themselves against the arbitrary fee hike by the unaided private schools. Needless to say that a PIL was filed in 1997 in the Hon’ble Delhi High Court which was decided on 30.10.1998 in favour of the parents. The High Court laid down the criteria and guidelines of fixing a reasonable fee structure in an unaided private school. The High Court also held that the Government is not only empowered but also has a duty to regulate fee of such schools to prevent commercialization of education and exploitation of parents/students. The schools filed appeals before the Hon’ble Supreme Court against the High Court decision which was dismissed on 27.04.2004. The schools took another opportunity through filing a review petition before the Hon’ble Supreme Court seeking review of Supreme Court decision of 27.04.2004. Fortunately, the Supreme Court also dismissed the review petition on 07.08.2009 reasserting that the fee has to be justified and not arbitrary and there has also to be accountability and transparency.
In 2008, on the pretext of 6^th Pay Commission Recommendations, the unaided private schools all over the country hiked fee and other charges exorbitantly and arbitrarily while Central and State Governments were just mute spectators to the same. This time, the parents all over the country organized themselves to a larger extent and openly protested against the schools and the Governments. The parents associations in many parts of the country approached their respective High Courts by way of filing writ petitions. The agitation by the parents led some States to constitute committees to look into the issue of the arbitrary fee hike. The Government of Delhi constituted S.L Bansal Committee, the State of Maharashtra constituted Kumud Bansal Committee and the State of Goa constituted D.P.Pednekar Committee. It is respectfully submitted that all these Committees in the absence of examining the financial records of each school to determine whether the fee hike was justified or not by applying the principles laid down by the Supreme Court in Modern School case, just ended up in making unsound and illogical solutions.
The Tamil Nadu Act, 2009 is providing solution to a larger extent. However, the application of the said Act is limited to the State of Tamil Nadu. In all other States, practically, there are no laws to deal with the fee hike problems. All India Parents Association (AIPA) has since long been demanding a Central Law to deal with the issue of commercialization in unaided private schools but the Central Government has not taken any step in this regard so far. The public interest demands that the Central Government must immediately enact a Central Law may be on the lines of the Tamil Nadu Act, 2009 to check the rampant commercialization of education in unaided private schools all over the country. We need of have a uniform law for all over the country as the problem of exploitation of parents and students by the unaided private schools all over the country is more or less the same. We hope and expect that Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Education Minister will rise to the occasion and sincerely take up this matter on urgent basis.
Last but not the least, we should not forget that while fighting against the exploitation of the parents/students by the unaided private schools, we have to continue our fight for the up-gradation of the standard of education in very Government School all over the country to the level of Kendriya Vidayalays (Central Schools).

DPS-MIS nursery student found dead in school bus

2010-05-26T10:27:00.001-07:00

Qatar Tribune | Front Page | May 18, 2010

http://www.qatar-tribune.com/data/20100518/pdf/main.pdf

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=362310&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56

And Imagine what support & reactions happen in such a sad incident, elsewhere in th world ? Read the reports there after .... hope to see such reactions from parents in India as well !

Life is not the same, after that. It has to change or people change from their positions !

http://v5.test.arabianbusiness.com/588563-qatar-launches-probe-into-death-of-young-pupil

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=362310&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=362528&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=362530&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=362755&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=362756&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=362730&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=363052&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=362903&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=363214&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=363325&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56

Fee Fixed for Private Schools in Tamil Nadu

2010-05-12T20:53:00.001-07:00

Supreme Court rejects challenge to school fee law

2010-05-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

M Ramya, TNN, May 12, 2010, 03.29am IST
CHENNAI: Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed appeals against the Madras high court judgment upholding the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009.

The SC’s order came as a disappointment to unaided schools, which had counted on the appeal to oppose the proposed fee structure announced by a state-appointed committee formed under the Act. The judgment’s impact on the fee panel’s recommendations are yet to be clarified, but the ruling empowers the state to regulate fees and check profiteering.

School education minister Thangam Thennarasu informed the assembly about the "sweet news" that the legislation had been upheld and that special leave petitions by private schools had been dismissed. "The court has commended the state’s law and said it was valid," Thennarasu said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Chennai/Supreme-Court-rejects-challenge-to-school-fee-law/articleshow/5919638.cms

Fee structure fixed for private schools

2010-05-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

CHENNAI: The State government has fixed fees for 10,934 private self-financing schools across Tamil Nadu.

The Private Schools Fee Determination Committee, a statutory panel appointed by the Government, finalised the fee structure after conducting a detailed study of the various issues.

The committee took into consideration the average fees collected from each student, the total number of students and the expenditure incurred by the school, including the salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff and other expenses, such as electricity and telephone charges.

The fees fixed for each individual school will be intimated through the concerned Chief Educational Officer. Details of the fee structure will be posted on the website (www.pallikalvi.in) of the Education Department for the benefit of parents and schools.

K.Govindarajan, Committee Chairperson, addressing newspersons here on Friday, said a format was designed with regard to the fixation of fees and it was forwarded to all the 10,934 schools, of which 10,233 responded.

The fee structure for 10,233 schools was fixed on the basis of income and expenditure of the schools. If the income, collected as fees from students, were more than the expenditure, the schools were asked to reduce them. In schools where the income was less than the expenditure, they were allowed to collect the existing fees. Schools that were not collecting any fees would not be allowed to collect fees. For the 701 schools which had not responded to the format, the committee has fixed fees similar to that of schools in the adjoining areas.

The committee on an average fixed Rs. 11,000 for higher secondary schools, Rs. 9,000 for high schools, Rs. 8,000 for middle schools and Rs. 5,000 for elementary schools in the city. There were higher secondary schools in the city which were collecting around Rs. 35,000 per student. However, in the case of elementary schools in the city, a majority of them were collecting around Rs. 2,000 per student. Shockingly, a residential school in Kadayanallur in Tirunelveli district was collecting Rs. 1.25 lakh per student for elementary classes. As the school showed an expense of Rs. 3,000 per student, the committee fixed the same as the fees. The committee allowed the existing fee structure for schools that were collecting reasonable fees.

Mr.Govindarajan said fees in schools in urban areas were less compared to those in semi-urban areas. Perhaps this might be due to lesser number of students in the latter. The chairperson said the fees fixed by the committee would be in force for three years and no school would be allowed to enhance or revise the fees for the next three years without prior permission of the committee. For the development of schools a 10 per cent increase in expenses would be allowed.

If the committee received any complaint from students or parents that a particular school had been collecting more than the prescribed fee it would make an enquiry. It would recommend penal action against the school if the complaint against it was found to be true.
http://nellaitngtf.com/?p=288

Fee structure fixed for private schools

2010-05-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

CHENNAI: The State government has fixed fees for 10,934 private self-financing schools across Tamil Nadu.

The Private Schools Fee Determination Committee, a statutory panel appointed by the Government, finalised the fee structure after conducting a detailed study of the various issues.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/08/stories/2010050861230100.htm

Paathshaala

2010-05-09T04:59:00.000-07:00

Teaching is a noble profession. But does it hold true today? Hasn't education succumbed to modernization as everything else, which is ruled by commercialization and consumerism in this age of rat race? We read in the newspapers about students being bogged down under study pressures, parents burdened with fees hikes, teachers punishing students inhumanly, some students even dying in such cases or some committing suicides… what state of affairs have we brought our education system to? Paathshala tries to answer many such questions related to the sanctity of today's education system. It sheds light on the shortcomings and wrong doings in today's schools where the high morals and basic ethics associated with the teaching profession seem to have taken a back seat. It's shameful that even schooling has fallen prey to the pressures of competition and the vices of money making mantra. Paathshala attempts to challenge such notions that threaten our children's future and thus our society. The story begins with a new English Teacher Rahul Prakash Udyavar (Shahid Kapoor) joining Swaraswati Vidya Mandir school, situated in the outskirts of Mumbai Suburbs. Though he strikes instant rapport with students and teachers alike, he realizes that there is something amiss in the school. Slowly his doubts prove true as the School Manager Sharma (Saurbh Shukla) makes many monetary obligations compulsory on the parents in the name of extracurricular activities. He goes to the extent of punishing the students inhumanly when the new unjustified demands of the school are not fulfilled by the parents. When Rahul Udyawar unifies the teachers (Ayesha Takia, Sushant Singh, Kurush Deboo) against the atrocities of school management, the Principal Aditya Sahay (Nana Patekar) defends the management decision. This comes as a shocker to the teachers as Mr. Sahay is known for his dedication as an educationist for last 32 years which has built the school's high reputation. The situation becomes graver as school management becomes overambitious with its growth and involves media planners in the extracurricular activities. This demands the involvement of students in TV reality shows and many other media PR activities used for building up the school image in public which starts reflecting on the students' stress levels. The pressure on young minds increases incredibly leading to unexpected and grim consequences. Caught in the web of commercialization and internal rebellion, the school's situation becomes so explosive that it finally becomes a national issue. Paathshala challenges the increasing immoralities and unethical practices in our education system. It analyses intricately the relationship between students, teachers and the education system with sensitivity and sensibility… It reflects the true spirit of an education system. PAATHSHALA An Urgent and Desperate eye opening Mission for our Education System today.

Colonial leather out! Indian campaign for canvas educational institution shoes

2010-05-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

Indian children could soon be wearing canvas shoes to inculcate rather than the acute leather brogues, widely viewed as relics from the British colonial era.
Indian politician Maneka Gandhi is campaigning to forbid the shoes as they are "unhealthy and uncomfortable" and "destroying" the feet of school-goers.
Reports think the drive is supported by two major school boards. Education policy-makers have not yet commented.
Black leather shoes are mandatory for students in most schools in India.
"Leather shoes are really lousy for our children," news agency AFP quoted Ms Gandhi as saying.

These shoes, originally from Ireland and Scotland, were suitable for cold climates and not for the heat of India, she added.

Last year, Ms Gandhi wrote to the human resource development ministry protesting against the use of leather shoes.

The ministry then asked school boards fitting for their opinion.
According to reports, the two main boards – Central Board of School Education (CBSE) and Indian School Certificate Examination (ISCE) – have responded favourably to the suggestion.

Ms Gandhi says several schools in the southern city of Madras (Chennai) have already swapped leather shoes for canvas ones. A similar move is underway in the northern city of Chandigarh too, she says.
Maneka Gandhi is the daughter-in-law of former Indian premier Indira Gandhi and the widow of her eldest son, Sanjay Gandhi.
http://theuniversityof.info/2010/05/06/colonial-leather-out-indian-campaign-for-canvas-educational-institution-shoes/

Delhi HC stays Govt order against school fee hike

2010-04-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

The Delhi High Court stayed the Delhi government's order barring schools from hiking fees without the approval of Parents Teachers Associations.

A Division Bench headed by Justice A K Sikri stayed the recent notification of Education Department on a plea of schools that the government should not issue any order on fee hike till the disposal of their petition in the court.

Meanwhile, the court extended the time granted to the government by two weeks for filing its reply to a notice on a petition filed by the parents association challenging the government's permission to schools to hike their fees.

The Bench was hearing a PIL, filed by the Delhi Abhibhavak Sangh, Social Jurists, an NGO, and Faith Academy Parent's Association through counsel Ashok Aggarwal alleging that the government had gone contrary to the recommendation given by S L Bansal Committee, constituted to look into the fee hike by schools.

They sought direction to quash the notification issued by the Education Department on February 11 permitting the schools to hike tuition fees with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.

According to the notification, for every Rs 500 in tuition fees, there will be Rs 100 increase monthly. Delhi government had constituted a committee headed by S L Bansal, a retired IAS officer, to examine the implications of 6th Pay Commission for recognised unaided schools and the Education Department relied on the committee's recommendation while issuing the notification for school fee hike.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/delhihcstaysgovtorderagainstschoolfee/453066/

Unaided Private School : Excesses Of CBSE & ICSE Schools

2010-04-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

इस हिमालय से कोई गंगा निकलनी चाहिए !!

2010-03-26T03:18:00.001-07:00

हो गई है पीर पर्वत-सी पिघलनी चाहिए
इस हिमालय से कोई गंगा निकलनी चाहिए

आज यह दीवार, परदों की तरह हिलने लगी,
शर्त लेकिन थी कि ये बुनियाद हिलनी चाहिए

हर सड़क पर, हर गली में, हर नगर, हर गाँव में
हाथ लहराते हुए हर लाश चलनी चाहिए

सिर्फ हंगामा खड़ा करना मेरा मकसद नहीं,
सारी कोशिश है कि ये सूरत बदलनी चाहिए

मेरे सीने में नहीं तो तेरे सीने में सही
हो कहीं भी आग, लेकिन आग जलनी चाहिए!

we hope one day, we all can change the rotten system of education in the country

and be able to create a better environment for our future generations....

amen !!

Schools can't be allowed to fix exorbitant fees

2010-02-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

Dhananjay Mahapatra , TNN, Feb 21, 2010, 08.22pm IST
HRD minister Kapil Sibal has made an astonishingly uncompassionate statement that fees of private schools could not be regulated. This comes in the midst of nursery admissions, one of the toughest seasons for young parents to see their ward take a tiny step towards exercising its right to education, now a fundamental right.

He made amends the next day and clarified that he was against profiteering by schools in the form of excess fees or demanding capitation charges. Against a profound statement allowing schools to run wild in fixing fees for students, nay parents, the minister came out with a whimper of a personal rejoinder saying he was against capitation fee.

There cannot be anything personal in matters of capitation fee or overcharging. Education is a serious matter and no one knows it better than Sibal, who as a top lawyer must have known from numerous Supreme Court judgments -- starting from Miss Mohini Jain vs State of Karnataka [1992] to P A Inamdar vs State of Maharashtra [2005] -- that the ball lies firmly in the government's court to prevent commercialisation of education. If the stinging judgments of the top court against profiteering and capitation fee are the law of the land and must be implemented by governments as mandated by Article 141 of the Constitution, then the schools, even if run by private or minority management, will find it impossible to pinch the last penny from parents.

Let us first take a look at the Mohini Jain judgment of the Supreme Court, which was pronounced at a time when liberalisation as a government policy was testing waters and commercialisation of education was not as big a menace it is now. In 1992, right to education was part of the unenforceable Directive Principles, traditionally considered by governments as idealistic preachings of the Constitution. The apex court did not think so and said Directive Principles were not mere pious declarations but of vital importance to the country's future.

Terming right to education to be a fundamental right even two decades back, the SC had said grant of recognition to private institutions by the state was creation of an agency by the government to fulfil its obligation under the Constitution to provide educational facility at all levels to citizens. "The students are given admission to the educational institution -- whether state-owned or state-recognised -- in recognition of their right to education under Constitution," it had said.

What the top court said in the two succeeding paragraphs is a must read for Sibal. It said, "Charging capitation fee in consideration of admission to educational institutions is a patent denial of a citizen's right to education under the Constitution. Capitation fee is nothing but a price for selling education. The concept of teaching shops is wholly abhorrent to Indian culture and heritage."

After more than 13 years, with liberalisation spreading prosperity and greed in equal proportions, the Supreme Court in P A Inamdar case again dealt with the topic of capitation fee. The judicial thinking, except for exclusion of the `culture and heritage' aspect, did not appear to have undergone much change as far as capitation fee was concerned. A 7-judge constitution Bench emphatically declared that the state was duty bound to prevent charging of capitation fee. "The charging of capitation fee by unaided minority and non-minority institutions is just not permissible," it had said. Can anything be clearer than this?

Concluding, the apex court said, "Every institution is free to devise its own free structure but the same can be regulated in the interest of preventing profiteering. No capitation fee can be charged."

So, even if educational institutions have freedom to fix the fee structure, they cannot indulge in profiteering. If they do so despite these judgments imposing an unambiguous ban on capitation fee and overcharging, then it is the government which should be held liable for being irresponsible both towards the citizen and the Constitution, which says law declared by the Supreme Court shall be enforceable throughout the country.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Schools-cant-be-allowed-to-fix-exorbitant-fees/articleshow/5600370.cms

Private schools free to fix their own fees, says Sibal

2010-02-22T07:35:00.000-08:00

Neha Pushkarna, TNN, Feb 20, 2010, 01.20am IST
NEW DELHI: In what comes as a blow to the efforts of city parents' associations which have been campaigning for reining in school fees, Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday that the fees of private schools cannot be regulated and that each school had the right to fix the salaries of its teachers.

Sibal's claims contradict provisions in the Delhi School Education Act, 1973, which stipulate that remuneration of teachers in private schools cannot be less than their counterparts in government schools. The minister said this contradiction will go away once the Right to Education Act is implemented from April 1 this year implying that the central Act will override the state law.

``There is no such provision in RTE,'' Sibal said about the salaries of teachers while addressing principals at the 37th annual meet of National Progressive Schools' Conference -- a group of nearly 110 private unaided schools in the city.

``The salaries of teachers in private schools do not have to be according to the government. They will decide to pay what they want to pay,'' he declared, while countering a speaker at the meet who had earlier said that small schools, which are now mushrooming in the city, did not have quality teachers because they could not afford to pay good salaries.

While all schools were not required to pay Rs 22,000 (the minimum basic salaray as per the Sixth Pay Commission) to their teachers, there should be no compromise on the qualification of teachers, he added.

The minister's new announcement indicates that private schools in the city may finally get a free hand in deciding teachers' salaries and consequently the fees, much to the dismay of parents. There have been many protests against schools hiking their fees last year. After the Sixth Pay Commission was implemented in the second half of 2008, schools sought to hike their fee to generate revenue to pay the teachers more.

Delhi government then formed the Bansal Committee to decide how much fee a school could be allowed to increase and issued a notification in this regard on February 11 last year.

According to section 9 of chapter IV of the Delhi School Education Act 1973, private schools need to pay salaries at a par with government schools. ``The scales of pay and allowances, medical facilities, pension, gratuity, provident fund and other prescribed benefits of the employees of a recognized private school shall not be less than those of the employees of the corresponding status in schools run by the appropriate authority.''

However, according to Sibal, this act will be rendered ineffective from April 1. ``Once the Right to Education (RTE) is implemented, the Delhi School Education Act will not apply.'' RTE Act has already been notified.

On regulation of fees, Sibal referred to the T M Pai case saying, ``The Supreme Court has also said that fees of private schools cannot be regulated and yet some state governments have passed such acts,'' he told the teachers present.

The minister said he has also moved a malpractices bill under which all schools will have to give details of their infrastructure, number of students, salaries of teachers etc on their website. If the online information is found to be false, the school can be prosecuted.

As per the provisions of RTE, all unaided private schools operating in a city should be recognized. Sibal said that the bill did not aim at shutting down unrecognized schools. ``Our purpose is to enhance infrastructure and quality of private unaided schools,'' he said.

Feb 13, 2010 – Historic March to Parliament – Memorandum to the Prime Minister of India

2010-02-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

ALL INDIA PARENTS ASSOCIATION (AIPA)

AGARWAL BHAWAN, G.T. ROAD,

TIS HAZARI, DELHI-110054

13.02.2010

To,

Hon’ble Dr. Manmohan Singh,

Prime Minister of India,

New Delhi

Respected Sir,

We invite your kind attention to the fact that even after sixty-two years of independence, over two crores children with disabilities of our beloved country have been totally denied the right to education. Whatever figures are available, they point to the fact that only less than one percent of these children with disabilities are in the mainstream school system. It is submitted that the children with disabilities are the worst sufferers as they are grossly deprived of all human and fundamental rights. Interestingly, even those children with disabilities who are in school do not have basic facilities like special teachers, aids and appliances, reading and learning material, barrier free environment, special toilets, ramps etc. Even a premier institution like Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) have admitted before the Hon’ble Delhi High Court that they do not have any staff to take care of the educational needs of the disabled children studying in their schools. How long the rulers of this country would continue to deny the basic right to education to our children with disabilities?

It is submitted that all children including the children with disabilities have a basic human and fundamental right to receive good quality education in the mainstream schools as guaranteed to them under Article 14 (right to equality), Article 21 (right to life with dignity), Article 21-A (right to education) and Article 38 (right to social justice) of the Constitution of India read with the provisions of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008). It is estimated that about 10 crores children are out of school and are engaged in labour though their rightful place is in school. Those children who are in the government school system are receiving very poor quality of education. Fee-charging private schools are flourishing at the cost of government schools. It is all happening due to the apathy of the governments towards the educational needs of the children of the masses of this country. AIPA demands that all government schools all over the country must be upgraded to the level of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) schools.

It has been noted that the parents all over the country have raised their collective voice against inaction on the part of the Central and State Governments to check the menace of commercialization of education in unaided private schools. It is unfortunate that the governments have utterly failed to check arbitrary fee hike by the private schools despite directives by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Modern School case. Though the parents are now better aware of their rights qua unaided private schools but the schools are adamant to continue to exploit the hapless parents and students by subjecting them to pay unjustified, exorbitant and arbitrary fee and other charges. The State of Tamil Nadu has enacted Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009. It appears that the Tamil Nadu Act is addressing the parents’ concerns to a large extent. However, the application of the said Act is limited to the State of Tamil Nadu. In other States, there are practically no laws to deal with the school fee hike problems. AIPA demands a Central Law to deal with the issue of commercialization in unaided private schools.

In order to highlight the violations of the right to education of the children with disabilities and also unbridled and unchecked commercialization of education in unaided private schools, All India Parents Association (AIPA) has organized a historic march to the Parliament today the 13^th February, 2010, in which people from all walks of life including lawyers, doctors, parents, students, children with disabilities, NGOs, social activists and concerned citizens in big numbers holding placards in their hands, are participating

DEMANDING FROM THE CENTRAL AND THE STATE GOVERNMENTS TO ENSURE THAT

· No government or private school should deny admission to the children with disabilities;

· All the schools, whether government or private, shall provide totally free education to the children with disabilities at all levels;

· All schools, whether government or private, should have all basic facilities like adequate number of qualified special teachers, aids and appliances, ramps, special toilet, teaching and learning material, barrier free environment etc.;

· Availability of basic facilities for the disabled children in the school must be made a condition of grant of recognition to the school; and

· Totally free health security to the children with disabilities. Schools should be so equipped with basic medical expertise that the children with disabilities may get appropriate medical assistance, guidance and advice.

We also demand immediate enactment of a National Law addressing the issue of commercialization of education in unaided private schools. We further demand the up-gradation of all government schools all over the country to the level of Kendriya Vidayalaya Sangathan (KVS) schools. These demands are justified and in national interest. It is submitted that any delay in realization of these demands will be at the peril to our nation.

Sir, we have great hopes in you. We, therefore, request you to kindly intervene in the matter for the realization of the above demands.

On behalf of AIPA & all other participating organizations and individuals:

Ashok Agarwal, Advocate

National President, AIPA

M-09811101923

Schools gear up to hike fees

2010-01-15T23:18:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: Schools in the capital are once again getting ready to hike fees in the new session which begins in April. The management of most schools are likely to decide on the quantum of hike in March after they lay out the budget for the next academic session.

"As the cost of everything is increasing, there will be a hike. It may be less or more than 10%,'' said L V Sehgal, principal, Bal Bharti Public School, Ganga Ram Hospital Marg, who is also the vice-president of National Progressive Schools' Conference (NPSC) a body of at least 110 schools. The schools had earlier raised fees after the Sixth Pay Commision was implemented in September 2008. The directorate of education (DoE) accepted the recommendations of the Bansal Committee formed in October 2008 by Delhi government to look into the matter of a fee hike. As per DoE directions issued on February 11, 2009, parents had to pay upto Rs 500 as the hike in tuition fees besides a maximum of Rs 4,500 as arrears in two-three instalments though the matter is now subjudice. "There hasn't been a hike in the last session. But there will be an escalation this year. We will look into our annual budget and decide upon a justified hike,'' said Bharti Sharma, principal, Amity International School, Saket. D K Bedi, principal, Apeejay School, Pitampura, said, "There are three months to go before the hike is introduced. It will be reasonable and will bedecided in consultation with government representatives. There are two nominees each from the government and the DoE on the management board.'' Parents are worried. Said advocate Ashok Aggarwal, who runs a civil rights group called Social Jurist, "Schools hike fees by 10% to 30% every year. As per court directions, they can increase or decrease the fee according to their expenditure and projections. But schools assume that they can only hike the fee.'' He added, "Any increase so close to last year's hike may force more children to drop out of private schools.''
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Schools-gear-up-to-hike-fees/articleshow/5450171.cms

Kendriya Vidyalayas set weight limits on schoolbags

2010-01-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

Manash Pratim Gohain, TNN, 15 January 2010, 02:35am IST
NEW DELHI: Finally, students can hope to have some load taken off their backs. In a move could well set a trend, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan

(KVS) has come up with a graded formula that prescribes weight limits on schoolbags of its students.

As per the new `loadshedding' policy laid down for the 981 Kendriya Vidyalayas across India, schoolbags for classes I and II should not weigh more than 2kg. For classes III and IV, the bag weight should be less than 3kg, and those studying in classes V to VIII shouldn't carry bags that are more than 4kg. The upper limit for senior classes — IX to XII — has been set at 6kg. More than a million children study in Kendriya Vidyalayas.

The formula was stated in a circular from the KVS headquarters to the principals. It called for a phased implementation of the guidelines, starting with the primary classes.

KVS officials said the weight limits were an interim measure — the goal was to eventually move to a system where no child carried a bag load of more than 1kg. ``It is a pure violation of a child's right to place a burden on his back disproportionate to his age and health. The school system can be charged with cruelty to the child,'' the circular stated.

The circular also called for `strict compliance' of the guidelines by principals. ``As per physiological prescription, a child should not carry more than a fifth of his body weight on his back to keep the spine and skeletal structure strong and upright,'' the circular explained.

The project was piloted by U N Singh, ex-joint commissioner (academic), KVS, who retired early this month. Singh told TOI, ``KVs would be the first schools in the country to reduce the burden of schoolbags. We are not stopping at that. The reform process includes a wide gamut of environmental awareness and promotion of ICT (information and communication technologies) in education.''

Singh said KVS is working on one-textbook, one-notebook concept for its students. He said kids have heavy bags as they carry, apart from textbooks on each subjects, an equal number of notebooks. ``In higher classes, students are made to carry reference books as well which increases the load to unbearable proportions. What we plan to do is to have all chapters of all subjects to be taught in a particular academic session put in a single textbook and have students carry just one notebook. Zonal offices of KVS would work on the books. There will be an environmental benefit of the move as well, as more books mean increased felling of trees for paper. Secondly, with increasing computerization in the KVs, most books would be available in electronic form. And the reference books are to be kept in the class library so that students need not even go to the main library.''

Other initiatives of KVS include not giving homework for more than two-three subjects on a particular day, discouraging teaching through textbooks and having lockers assigned to students for keeping their books in every class.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Kendriya-Vidyalayas-set-weight-limits-on-schoolbags/articleshow/5446807.cms

Year that saw school fee hike, parents’ protests & panel report

2009-12-27T09:42:00.000-08:00

Posted: Sunday , Dec 27, 2009 at 0550 hrs
With a steep fee hike in city schools, it was a year of hard lessons for parents in the education field. Parents of students of English medium schools raised a hue and cry over the decision, making the state government rethink on the issue and deliberate over the need of proper regulations for unaided schools.

In June, a reputed school in the city hiked its fees by Rs 8,000 per annum for Class V to X. The parents agitated and the school had to stay the decision. However, some of the parents from Mumbai went to the Bombay High Court on the issue.

The court asked the state government to come up with a policy on regulation of school fees. The government formed a 19-member committee under the chairmanship of former education secretary Kumud Bansal. However, the recommendations of the committee that came up with its report on October 16 have generated a lot of debate across the state, as it is alleged that the recommendations are pro-school managements.

The report said, “There cannot be uniform and rigid norms for deciding admissible expenditure as schools are affiliated to different boards and norms for every board are different.” But it supported generating 15 per cent surplus funds every year, along with providing a list of admissible expenditure for schools that includes repairs and maintenance of assets, depreciation, annual increments in salaries, inflation and expenses on account of statutory requirements. This point angered the parents.

One of the main objections against the committee was its structure. According to Sandeep Chavan, member of All India Federation of Parent Teacher Association, the 21-member committee had three parents’ representatives and 14 school representatives. Other four were government officers. “Naturally, the report is pro-school managements and against the interests of parents,” he said.

he only positive stand of the committee is its recommendation on capitation. “Schools are proscribed from charging capitation fees and should not be allowed to profiteer,” the committee said.

Parents are not buying the argument though and want the state government to regulate the fees of the entire education sector from pre-primary to post graduation. “There is no guidelines for pre-primary sector where schools demand donations up to Rs 1 lakh for admission to nursery class,” said a parent activist. Milind Wagh of forum against commercialisation of education objects to the very formation of the committee, saying there should be a body for schools just on the lines of a fee regulatory committee for professional colleges in the state.

The government on the other hand is slow to react. Even after two months of government formation, a fulltime minister for schools has not been appointed. Parents can now only hope that 2010 will see a regulation on fees for the academic year ahead.

Meanwhile, the higher education sector in the city was shaken up when Sri Balaji Society came under the scanner of All India Council for Technical Education for allegedly making wrong promises on infrastructure. Mulshi Institute of Technology and Research was the talk of the town for incidents of mass copying in engineering exams. The University of Pune imposed Rs 5 lakh fine on the latter, suspended teachers who helped in mass copying. Following this, acting Vice-Chancellor Arun Adsool declared that he would de-affiliate such institutes.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/year-that-saw-school-fee-hike-parents-protests-&-panel-report/559708/1

Private schools: NGO files court case against fee hike

2009-12-27T09:41:00.000-08:00

Divya Sethi, TNN 26 December 2009, 09:47pm IST
LUDHIANA: Following a series of protests last year, an NGO has come forward to fight a legal battle on the fee hike issue. Taking a cue from

cases filed by parents’ associations in Delhi, the matter pertaining to fee hike in private schools is again in Punjab and Haryana High Court. And this initiative has brought a ray of hope for many parents, who have been keeping their fingers crossed, as the new session is about to begin in schools.

Anti-corruption and Crime Investigation Cell has filed a writ petition in Punjab and Haryana High Court against schools charging parents hefty amounts in the name of school fees. Rohit Sabharwal, president of the NGO, said, “We have filed a case and after going through the plea, the court has issued notice of motion to CBSE and PSEB. The matter is scheduled to come up for hearing on January 28, 2010.”

Saurabh Gupta, counsel in the case, who was here to interact with parents and share with them details of the case, talking on the issue, said, “Right now, with the new academic session about to start, a stay order from the court would be desirable. No school should be allowed to revise the fee till a decision is taken in the case, to enable parents to heave a sigh of relief.”

He further said, “State government should set up a committee of five members headed by a retired high court judge with a chartered accountant. Every educational institution must place before this committee well before commencement of the new academic year, its proposed fee structure. Apart from this, relevant documents and account books must be produced before the committee for scrutiny. The committee should then assess whether the proposed fee is justified. And once the fee is revised, it should continue to be the same for the next three years.”

The issue was raised by Hindu Sikh Jagriti Sena last year after announcement of sixth pay commission recommendations and subsequent revision of school fee to make room for increase in teachers’ salaries. Members of the association shaved off their heads and staged a dharna on Jagraon Bridge. The issue now awaits a court decision.
Parents are happy about the initiative taken by the NGO and are hopeful that things would gradually fall in place. Father of a class VIII student of Kundan Vidya Mandir said, “We could now hope that the fee won’t be revised next year. Otherwise, the revision is a regular feature in the school.”

Another parent, whose child studies in St Thomas School, said, “The school has issued a circular that fee of all students would be revised by Rs 200 in the next session. The petition is a silver lining in a dark cloud- three of my children are studying in the school, which means added burden of Rs 600 apart from other expenses.”
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ludhiana/Private-schools-NGO-files-court-case-against-fee-hike/articleshow/5382411.cms

School Bus:Who takes responsibility.RTO or Administration

2009-12-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

Nursery admissions: parents and school body at loggerheads

2009-12-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Tue, Dec 22 02:50 PM
New Delhi, Dec 22 (IANS) Just a week after the nursery admissions process began in the capital with the promise of being 'much smoother' than previous years, complaints have started pouring in from parents about irregularities in different schools. School bodies, however, deny the allegations.
The major complaints of parents are about schools not giving admission to students from economically weaker sections and charging more money for applying than the allowed amount of Rs.25.
Sakshi Sharma, a parent, said: 'The education department may have tried to regularise the admissions process but these schools are very smart. The admissions form is supposed to be Rs.25, but in a few schools some important details like date of submission and others are mentioned only in the prospectus - which you have to buy separately for Rs.250-300.'
'So if I am trying five-six schools for my child's admission, I have to pay much more than what the government thinks we ought to,' she said.
Arvind Verma, another parent, said: 'Some schools have the online option for form submission, but then that does not give you important details of the process, so you are forced to buy the prospectus.'
The admission process for nursery classes started Dec 15 across Delhi and since then the education department has received more than a hundred complaints against various schools.
But the Federation of Public Schools insists the process is smoother this year.
R.P. Mallik, chairman of the Federation, said: 'There will always be some or the other kind of small complaint by parents when it comes to their children's admissions. This time the nursery admissions are much smoother than previous years'.
The Federation of Public Schools has around 300 schools under its ambit in Delhi.
There are complaints about schools charging more for the admission forms. The thing is that some schools sell their prospectus separately and if you have to buy that and the form, you obviously have to pay more. Therefore, nothing much should be read into these complaints,' Mallik told IANS.
The Delhi government Monday pulled up four private schools in the city for not following guidelines on nursery admissions.
'Acting on the complaints of parents, the education department has asked four private schools for a reply into the alleged irregularities in the nursery admission process,' an education department official said.
The education department Saturday warned 19 schools after receiving complaints against them.
However, Mallik said: 'The government has no option but to warn schools when a few complaints come. But I don't think these are very big issues and it is an easy process.'
Hundreds of thousands of children are expected to apply for admissions at the nursery level even as the number of seats are reported to be far fewer.Indo Asian News Service

Tue, Dec 22 02:50 PM
http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20091222/812/tnl-nursery-admissions-parents-and-schoo.html

13K petition against hike in school fee

2009-12-22T01:32:00.000-08:00

Nayha Kalia, TNN 20 December 2009, 03:03am ISTMUMBAI:
Thousands of concerned parents and members of the public put pen to paper in a state-wide protest on Saturday against school fee hikes as well as a recent draft report released by the state-appointed committee to look into school fee hikes. Organised by Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE), around 13,000 people from Mumbai and its outskirts participated in the signature campaign, which took place in several parts of Maharashtra, including Pune, Nagpur, Nasik and Mumbai. At CST, nearly 30 protesters from the forum rallied till 6 pm while over 5,000 signed the campaign at CST. The signatures will be sent to Maharashtra's director of education by December 23. Over "We are yet to get the figures for the rest of Maharashtra,'' said Jayant Jain, president of FFE. "The main aim of this protest is to show the government that most parents accept it as it is biased towards managements,'' he said. The committee's draft report didn't find favour with most parents as they felt it was skewed in favour of school managements.

Demand of National Law on the lines of Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009

2009-11-28T04:15:00.000-08:00

All India Parents Association (AIPA)
Agarwal Bhavan, G.T. Road
Tis Hazari, Delhi-110054
28.11.2009
Sub: Demand of National Law on the lines of Tamil Nadu
Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009

Dear Parents/Parents Associations,

It is interesting to note that the parents all over the country have raised voices against inaction on the part of the State Governments to check the menace of commercialization of education in unaided private schools. In 1997, on the pretext of 5th Pay Commission Recommendations, the unaided private schools in Delhi increased fee and other charges ranging from 40% to 400%. This gave rise to unrest amongst the middle class parents and the parents organized themselves against the arbitrary fee hike by the unaided private schools. Needless to say that a PIL was filed in 1997 in the Hon’ble Delhi High Court which was decided on 30.10.1998 in favour of the parents. The High Court laid down the criteria and guidelines of fixing a reasonable fee structure in an unaided private school. The High Court also held that the Government is not only empowered but also has a duty to regulate fee of such schools to prevent commercialization of education and exploitation of parents/students. The schools filed appeals before the Hon’ble Supreme Court against the High Court decision which was dismissed on 27.04.2004. The schools took another opportunity through filing a review petition before the Hon’ble Supreme Court seeking review of Supreme Court decision of 27.04.2004. Fortunately, the Supreme Court also dismissed the review petition on 07.08.2009.

In 2008, on the pretext of 6th Pay Commission Recommendations, the unaided private schools all over the country hiked fee and other charges exorbitantly and arbitrarily while Central and State Governments were just mute spectators to the same. This time, the parents all over the country organized themselves to a larger extent and openly protested against the schools and the governments. The parents associations in many part of the country approached their respective High Courts by way of filing writ petitions. The agitation by the parents in some States led the State Governments to issue certain directives to check the arbitrary fee hike. The school managements have filed writ petitions against such directives in their respect State High Courts. A PIL filed by the Parents in Delhi High Court is being heard on day to day basis and is expected to be concluded soon.

Friends, I wish to submit that though the parents are now better aware of their rights qua unaided private schools but the schools are very adamant to continue to exploit the parents and the students by subjecting them to pay unjustified fee and other charges. The State of Tamil Nadu has enacted Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009. Some of the relevant provisions of the said Act are reproduced as under:

Section 3(2) - No fee in excess of the fee determined by the committee under this Act shall be collected for admission of pupils to any standard or course of study in a private school.

Section 5(1) - The Government shall constitute a committee for the purpose of determination of the fee for admission to any Standard or course of study in private schools.

Section 5(2) - The committee shall consist of the following members, namely: -
(a) a retired High Court Judge, nominated
by the Government. -Chairperson;
(b) Director of School Education. -Ex-officio Member;
(c) Director of Matriculation Schools. -Ex-officio Member;
(d) Director of Elementary Education. -Ex-officio Member;
(e) Joint Chief Engineer (Buildings)
Public Works Department. -Ex-officio Member;
(f) Additional Secretary to Government,
School Education Department. -Ex-officio Member
Secretary.”
Section 6 -
(1) The committee shall determine the fee leviable by a private school taking into account the following factors, namely: -
(a) the location of the private school;
(b) the available infrastructure;
(c) the expenditure on administration and maintenance;
(d) the reasonable surplus required for the growth and development of the private school;
(e) any other factors as may be prescribed.

(2) The committee shall on determining the fee leviable by a private school, communicate its decision to the school concerned.
(3)
Any private school aggrieved over the decision of the committee shall file their objection before the committee within fifteen days from the date of receipt of the decision of the committee.
(4) The committee shall consider the objection of the private school and pass orders within thirty days from the date of receipt of such objection.
(5) The orders passed by the committee shall be final and binding on the private school for three academic years. At the end of the sad period, the private school would be at liberty to apply for revision.
(6) The committee shall indicate the different heads under which the fee shall be levied.

Section 7 –
The powers and function of the committee shall be: -
(a) to determine the fee to be collected by private school;
(b) to hear complaints with regard to collection of fee in excess of the fee determined by it or fixed by the Government, as the case may be. If the committee, after obtaining the evidence and explanation from the management of the private school or aided school concerned or from the Government school, comes to the conclusion that the private school or the Government school or aided school has collected fee in excess of the fee determined by the committee or fixed by the Government, as the case may be, it shall recommend to the appropriate competent authority for the cancellation of the recognition or approval, as the case may be, of the private school or aided school or for any other course approval, as the case may be, of the private school or aided school or for any other course of action as it deems fit in respect of the private school or Government school or aided school.

(2) The committee shall have power to: -
(a) require each private school to place before the committee the proposed fee structure of such school with all relevant documents and books of accounts for scrutiny within such date as may be specified by the committee;
(b) verify whether the fee proposed by the private school is justified and it does not amount to profiteering or charging of exorbitant fee;
(c) approve the fee structure or determine some other fee which can be charged by the private school.
(3) The Committee shall have power to: -
(a) verify whether the fee collected by the school affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education; and
(b) to hear complaints with regard to collection of excess fee by a school affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education; and
(c)
to recommend to the Central Board of Secondary Education for disaffiliation of the school, if it comes to a conclusion that the school has collected excess fee.
(4) The committee shall have the power to regulate its own procedure in all matters arising out of the discharge of its functions, and shall, for the purpose of making any inquiry under this Act, have all the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 while trying a suit, in respect of the following matters, namely: -
(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any witness and examining him on oath;
(b) the discovery and production of any document;
(c) the receipt of evidence on affidavits;
(d) the issuing of any commission for the examination of witness.

Section 8 - The Government may regulate the maintenance of accounts by the private schools in such manner as may be prescribed.

Section 9 -
(1) Whoever contravenes the provision of this Act or the rules made thereunder shall, on conviction, be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to seven years and with fine which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to seven years and with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees.
Provided that the court may, for any adequate and special reason to be mentioned in the judgment, impose a sentence of imprisonment for a term of less than three years.
(2) The person convicted under this section shall refund to the pupil from whom the excess fee was collected in contravention of this Act, such excess fee.

It appears that the Tamil Nadu Act is addressing parents concerns to a larger extent. However, the application of the said Act is limited to the State of Tamil Nadu. In other States, practically, there are no laws to deal with the fee hike problems. All India Parents Association (AIPA) has since long been demanding a Central Law to deal with the issue of commercialization in unaided private schools but the Central Government has not taken any step in this regard so far. It is the need of the hour that all the parents/parents bodies all over the country should write to the Prime Minister and the HRD Union Minister demanding immediate enactment of a Central Law, may be on the lines of the Tamil Nadu Act to check the commercialization of education in unaided private schools all over the country. We can also plan to hold a massive demonstration at Jantar Mantar at New Delhi in this regard sometimes in January, 2010.

Last but not the least, we should not forget that while fighting against the exploitation of the parents/students by the unaided private schools, we have to continue our fight for the up gradation of the standard of education in very government school to the minimum level of kendriya Vidayalays (Central Schools). Contact at juristashok@gmail.com.

With regards,

Ashok Agarwal, Advocate
President, AIPA
M-09811101923

Unsafe passage to school

2009-11-06T05:57:00.000-08:00

TNN 4 November 2009, 10:20pm IST

KANPUR: Supreme court directives and periodic drives against unregistered vehicles by RTO have failed

to ensure safe transportation for schoolchildren.The drivers of school buses frequently break traffic rules and are found to be overspeeding without any fear of the consequences.
Despite the ongoing traffic month, school vans fitted with LPG cylinders and those overloading are openly flouting the norms but the traffic police seems to be oblivious of the fact.
In answer to a Right To Information application filed by parents' welfare association, it was revealed that only 259 buses are registered as school buses by the schools while 56 vehicles under contract carriage permit vehicles.
However, going by unofficial estimates, there are about 500 private school cabs ferrying on the city roads. Out of these, the Maruti vans are the biggest offenders and RTO officials expressed their helplessness in putting a check on these as, "Maruti vans simply don't approach us to get registered as school vehicles.''
According to Sanjeev Verma, a member of the parents' association, who had put up the query with RTO: "As per the reply provided by the RTO, there are various directions by SC in regard to school vehicles like `School Bus' must be prominently written on the back and front of every bus carrying schoolchildren. If it is a hired bus, `On School Duty' should be prominently displayed. However, most of the school buses are openly violating the traffic rules and SC directives."
During the three-day joint drive launched by the RTO and traffic department in the month of September, 21 school buses were fined while 4 of them were seized. According to RTO records, 26 more school buses were fined and 5 buses were seized till date in this year.
"The fined school vans and auto-rickshaws did not have the due permit from RTO," said the members of the association.
Most of the city schools do not provide bus transportation service to their students, forcing the parents to rely on pick-up vans and auto-rickshaws. Umang Agarwal, a parent said, "Though an easier option, there is no guarantee that it is safe too.''
The school authorities, on the other hand, said that the pick-up vans and auto-rickshaws are independent of the school and thus they can in no way put a check on them.
Concerned over the safety of their wards, the parents' association had handed over a memorandum to the officials concerned, including the administration and traffic personnel on October 28. However, no action or checking drive has been initiated by the departments concerned to catch the offenders.
What the law says
A vehicle can be detained under section 207 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 --

* If a four-wheeler is found to be transporting schoolchildren without the requisite permit.

* If any vehicle found to be transporting schoolchildren, with a permit, but flouting the terms under which it was issued.
Rule to be followed

# `School Bus' must be written on the back and front of every bus carrying schoolchildren.

# If it is a hired bus, `On School Duty' should be prominently displayed.

# No bus belonging to educational institute should carry children in excess of its permitted seating capacity.

# Every bus must have a first-aid box.

# Windows of the bus must be fitted with horizontal grills.

# There must be a fire extinguisher in every bus.

# School name and telephone number must be written on the bus.

# Doors of the bus should be fitted with reliable locks.

# Every driver of a school bus must have a minimum of 5 years of experience of driving heavy vehicles, and must not have any previous record of traffic offences.

# In addition to the driver, there must be another experienced person in every school bus.

# To keep school bags safely, space should be provided under the seat.

# There should be an escort (from school) in the bus, preferably a teacher to ensure safety norms.

(Directions given by the Supreme Court judgment on 20-11-1997 and 16-12-1997)

Unsafe passage to school

2009-11-06T01:35:00.000-08:00

Need for disaster risk management programme in schools

2009-10-29T09:59:00.001-07:00

28 October 2009, 07:55pm IST
Smriti Shukla, project officer for Disaster Risk Management programme who claimed to have conducted safety mock drills and inspection in over 160 government schools of the city said, "A large number of municipal schools operate in various urban centres, many of which are built in congested areas and are exposed to various hazards."
She added: "Shortcomings in structure and lack of proper measures can have disastrous consequences in the event of an earthquake. The schools thus, should get the safety programmes conducted on priority."

When it comes to the safety of the children, even the private and elite schools of the city are not far behind in flouting the safety norms and getting away with it, claimed parents of the students studying in these schools.

General secretary of Ideal Parents Welfare Association, Umang Agarwal, citing the example of a renowned school in Azad Nagar said that the school did not follow fire safety norms in its buildings. "Most school buildings are not safe at all. Majority of the schools have not taken any NOC from the fire department. The school management always think of money but not of children's safety," said Agarwal.

"Often there is no proper ventilation, no fire extinguisher and most importantly no proper exit points to rush out during emergency. These factors can be critical in determining whether occupants come out safely during a fire emergency or get trapped inside," said Sanjeev Verma, parent of a child studying in a prominent school in Civil Lines.
Topics:Disaster Risk Management
Ideal Parents Welfare Association
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Need-for-disaster-risk-management-programme-in-schools/articleshow/5173290.cms

Need for disaster risk management programme in schools

2009-10-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

Letter of Consent Needs School Swaraj India Public School,Kanpur

2009-10-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

COUNTRYWIDE MOVEMENT TO PROTECT RIGHT TO EDUCATION

2009-09-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Please join in large numbers to make the cause of education for all a big success.

How you do it:

Please send a POST CARD TO CJI TO PROTECT RTE

Sample Postcard:

CONCEPT NOTE

“POST CARD TO CJI TO PROTECT RTE”

(A SOCIAL JURIST INITIATIVE)

The Supreme Court can accept even a simple letter as a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) by persons whose fundamental rights have been violated as long as the issue relates to the interest of public at large, the complainant does not need to appear or hire services of Advocates to fight for them in the courts. The constitutional basis for PILs is provided through Article 32 of the Constitution of India.

Article 32 of the Constitution of India says –

Remedies for enforcement of rights conferred by this part –

(1) The right to move Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the rights conferred by this part is guaranteed.

(2) The Supreme Court shall have power to issue direction or orders or writs including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari, which ever may be appropriate, for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by this part.

(3) Without prejudice to the powers conferred on the Supreme Court by clause (1) and (2), parliament may by law empower any other court to exercise within the local limits of its jurisdiction to all or any of the powers exercisable by the Supreme Court under clause (2).

(4) The right guaranteed by this article shall not be suspended except as otherwise provided for by this Constitution.

The above quoted article 32 of the Constitution is also one of the fundamental rights of the citizens for the enforcement of the other fundamental rights provided in the chapter of fundamental rights in the Constitution. In other words, any citizen, as a matter of right, is entitled to complain to the Hon’ble Supreme Court under article 32 of the Constitution of the violation of any or more of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. It is a constitutional duty of the Supreme Court to entertain a complaint disclosing violation of the fundamental right and to provide suitable remedy. A complaint disclosing violation of the fundamental right to education is one of such complaints that can be filed under article 32 of the Constitution. A complaint under this article can be filed by way of petition, e-mail, letter or post card etc.

Right to education is a fundamental right provided in the Constitution. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in Unnikrishanan case (1993) I SSC 645 declared the right to education a fundamental right flowing from Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The Hon’ble Judges held that the State is obliged to provide free education to all the children up to the age of 14 years. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in catena of cases has repeatedly affirmed this settled position in law. Interestingly, on 20.12.2002, the Indian Parliament has inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution mandating the State to provide free and compulsory education to all children of age of six to fourteen years.

That reading together Articles 21 and 21-A in the spirit of the constitutional philosophy of social justice and equality leaves no manner of doubt that all the children have a fundamental and human right to receive good quality school education. The irony is that this right is not made available by the State to the children of the masses despite 61 years of independence. There exists an arbitrary and discriminatory system of provision of education within the government school education system itself. The government is spending public money on running exclusive schools, meant only for different sections of people based on socio-economic status. For instance, Government runs Kendriya Vidyalayas mainly for the children of the Central Government Employees and spends more than 11000 rupees annually on each student whereas the Government spends less than one tenth of this amount i.e.1000 rupees annually on each child studying in ordinary government run schools. This is in utter violation of Articles 14 (right to equality), 21 (right to life with dignity), 21-A (right to education) and 38 (right to social justice) of the Constitution of India. In order to do justice with the children of the masses, all government run schools throughout the country needs to be upgraded forthwith to the level of Kendriya Vidyalayas.

It is an established fact that all the parents, howsoever socially and economically backward may be, are serious to provide opportunities to their children to go to school. However, it is the government that has miserably failed to provide the minimum provisions and conditions essential for the realization of the right to good quality education. Such provisions and conditions includes existence of school in the neighbourhood, standard school building, hassle free admission in school, potable drinking water, electricity, fans, tubes, playground, cleanliness, desks, functional black boards, teaching aids, sports material, working computers, library, laboratory, adequate qualified and trained teachers, barrier free environment for the children with disabilities, trained teachers for children with disabilities, safety for girls, crèches for siblings etc. The government has also failed to ensure that the teachers take interest in caring and teaching the students. Corporal punishments are rampant.

In order to seek the enforcement of the fundamental and human right to education as guaranteed under Articles 21 and 21-A of the Constitution of India, it is very essential to make use of Article 32 of the Constitution of India. Therefore, it has been decided to launch a nation-wide “POST CARD TO CJI TO PROTECT RTE” movement from May 01, 2008 to December 31, 2008. During this period, complaints through post cards addressed to “The Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court, New Delhi-110001” under this article should be sent by the students, parents, social activists, civil rights organizations, NGOs etc. highlighting the specific problems being faced by them in their way to receive good quality education under the government school education system.

The Postcard PIL provides an opportunity to all those people who are keen to have their voice heard. Nowadays people do not wait for miracles to happen – this PIL post card is itself an amazing opportunity to stand up for yourself, to demand the “Right to Education” in its true letter and spirit.
We urge upon all the concerned citizens and the organizations interested in the realization of the fundamental and human right to education to join this movement and make it a great success.

POST CARD TO CJI TO PROTECT RTE

GUIDELINES

· · Objective: To avail the fundamental right guaranteed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India to highlight the deteriorating conditions of the government school education system resulting in violation of the fundamental right to education as guaranteed under Articles 21and 21-A of the Constitution of India

· Who can write: Any student, parent, civil rights organization, trade union, social activist, NGO etc. having personal knowledge of the facts. If student is unable to write her/himself, some one else can write the same but in that case, description of the some one else should be given in the postcard. It should be written in the post card that since the child/student was unable to write, he/she got it written through so and so person. The words used should be verbatim the same as may be told by the student/child.

· Whom to write: Hon’ble The Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court, New Delhi-110001.

What to write:

1. Sub: Complaint under Art.32 of the Constitution for protection of the fundamental right to education as guaranteed under Arts. 21 and 21-A of the Constitution of India.

2. Describe what you are. If you are a student, write your name, class, name and complete address of the school.

3. List one or more the nature of complaint. For instance, write (i) The school does not have the facility of potable drinking water; (ii) There are no functional blackboards in the school; (iii) There is only one teacher in the school teaching 200 students of classes I to V.

4. Write your full name and complete postal address. (Write telephone number also, if available)

5. Sign the postcard with date.

· When to post: As soon as the postcard is written.

Parents Day Celebration

2009-09-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

Parents Day Celebration

Happy Teachers Day !!!!!!!!!

2009-09-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

A Salute to our Teachers !

Status of Case

2009-09-02T01:41:00.000-07:00

Status of Case

Congratulations !!! Parents of DPS Hyderabad & Secunderabad

2009-09-02T01:15:00.000-07:00

Circular on 2nd term fee from school

Congratulations !!! Whether its the parents or management, DPS Secunderabad & Hyderabad shows the way & leads. The circular & challans sent by the school shows this once again.- Thanks to those 700 plus parents who are active & those of you who supported from behind in every step we took- Thanks to the school management for accepting our demand, even if its a stop gap .- Big thanks to Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA) for ensuring everything went right at the political system & not to forget we're (DPaS) founding members & the main backbone.
Today DPS Hyderabad & Secunderabad becomes the first major school in the Greater Hyderabad to accept the Govt of APs GO No 91 & amendments.
Many of us wondered what can we do ? - Pull out the kids from the school or just pay up what the management demanded ?????- Go, tell those who wondered & questioned, now with pride that you did it ....

School bus catches fire in Navi Mumbai, 25 children hurt

2009-08-21T21:06:00.001-07:00

Panvel : Twenty-five school children were injured, one of them seriously, when their school bus caught fire at Navi Mumbai on Thursday morning.
The incident happened around 0700 hours when the bus carrying about 40 children was on its way to CKT school in New Panvel after picking up the students, police said.
ACP, Navi Mumbai, V Chandanshive said the statement of one of the students has been recorded. "The boy told me there was smell of kerosene of petrol (in the bus). So we have already registered a case against the driver and owner and arrested them".
The exact reason behind the fire is yet to be ascertained.
Of the 25 injured, six children have been admitted to National Burns Centre in Airoli, two to Masina hospital in Byculla and few other children have been taken to Life Line hospital in Panvel and MGM hospital in Panvel among others.
"Of the two children admitted at Masina hospital, a 11-year-old boy has suffered 40 per cent burn injuries. Another 11-year-old girl suffered 60 per cent burn injuries and is serious," a doctor from Masina hospital said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Navi Mumbai’s Regional Transport Office is working to ensure school buses under its watch stick to safety norms issued by the Supreme Court in 1997.
This follows the accident in Panvel, on Thursday morning, when 22 school children suffered burn injuries, eight of them serious, after the mini bus they were travelling in caught fire.
Around 350 buses ply within Navi Mumbai Regional Transport Office’s (RTO) jurisdiction. Navi Mumbai Deputy Regional Transport Officer, Bharat Kalaskar, said, “We have so far issued memos to seven of the several buses checked. We have asked them to take immediate steps to conform to the guidelines, failing which we will take strict action against them.”
The Panvel fire was reportedly caused by a spark in the diesel tank of the bus. Thirty-eight students from class 5 to 10 were travelling in the bus, which had been hired by the parents two years ago.
“Thursday’s incident did not occur in our area (Panvel is under Raigad RTO), but we’ve stepped up our efforts to ensure nothing of the sort happens here,” said Kalaskar. The Navi Mumbai RTO had sent a circular with guidelines to all schools at the start of the academic year, he added.
The Raigad RTO has registered a case against Vishwanath Phadtare (24), driver and owner of the bus. It is waiting for the forensic report, expected by Saturday, for the exact cause of the fire. Panvel police on Thursday arrested Phadtare and his cleaner Anil Yadav (20) for negligence under Indian Penal Code Section 287 for bringing faulty machinery on to the road causing injury. Raigad Deputy RTO Bajrang Kharmate said, “We have registered a case against the bus owner in Pen court under Section 192 A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, for plying the vehicle without the requisite permit to carry children.”

Broad guidelines for schools H1 A1 FLU

2009-08-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

1.Schools are advised to avoid any large gathering of students during the course of the day in the school. This would reduce the possibility of the spread of the infection, if any, to a much larger number of students who would be in close contact with each other in such a gathering.
2.It should be made mandatory by the school authorities that all class teachers should begin their class with active screening of each student in the class so as to detect any student who is having symptoms of flu (mild fever with cough/ sore throat with or without body ache, headache, diarrhea and vomiting). If such student is detected, he/she should be referred immediately to the medical facility of the school. He/She should be further advised to stay at home for 7 days and observe strict discipline of home isolation. The onus of observance of discipline of isolation henceforth is shifted to the parents and school authorities should accordingly write a letter to the parent. The parents should also be advised to keep other wards at home, in case they are found to be having flu like symptoms. There should be constant self-monitoring and if symptoms deteriorates, it should be reported to health authorities immediately.
3.Students, teachers and other employees working in schools/educational institutions are advised to stay at home if they develop flu like symptoms. They should consult the medical doctor and take treatment as advised including the home isolation and drugs for treatment of the symptoms.
4.Students, teachers and other employees working in schools/educational institutions are advised to continue to stay at home for at least 7 days if they are advised by the doctor to take Oseltamivir treatment and they should observe home isolation. There should be constant self-monitoring and if symptoms deteriorates, it should be reported to health authorities, immediately.
5.School authorities should not insist on production of medical certificate from such preventive absentees.
6. Students, teachers and other employees working in schools/educational institutions are advised to wash their hands frequently with soap and water.
7. Students, teachers and other employees working in schools/educational institutions are advised to observe strict cough / sneeze etiquette i.e. use tissue while sneezing and coughing. The tissue paper so used should be kept in a separate plastic bag, so that it can be disposed of safely.
8.If any student, teachers or other employees is at high risk (suffering from chronic diseases of lung/heart/kidney/neoroloigcal system or blood disorder) for H1N1 and he / she becomes sick with influenza like sickness, the school authories should immediately take him/her to the medical officer of the school and carry out further treatment strictly under advice of the doctor. Mostly such patients will be kept at Oseltamivir and home isolation.
9.All the schools / educational institutions should observe regular cleaning of the area with cleaner they ordinarily use so that all the droplets and shredding from any unnoticed mildly infected students / employees are taken care of.
10. Closure of schools has not been recommended by Centre for Disease Control, Atlanta, USA. Its value for prevention of spread of disease within school is outweighed by the possibility of community spread, which is more likely because the children will play and mix with public in various places and at social gathering and there will be nobody to advise them or prevent such incidents. On the other hand, in schools there will be a teacher who will be able to detect their symptoms everyday at the earliest. However, school authorities have to use their own judgement for any type of temporary closure in the event of wide spread H1N1 influenza in school. There should be constant self-monitoring and if symptoms deteriorates, it should be reported to health authorities, immediately.
11.In case of students staying in hostels, the school authority should monitor the health status of students as well as the other ancillary staff in the hostel on regular basis.
12. In case there are suspected cases in the hostel, the authorised local medical authority should be called for examination of all students and school authority should not close the hostel and send the students back to their home.
13. School should discourage excursion of the students to the affected countries.
14.However, if students go on tour to the affected countries, they should be thoroughly examined on return by medical doctor before permitting attendance in the class. If there is one suspect case of H1N1 then the whole group should be kept under isolation at home and their health status should be regularly watched.
15.All the schools should display “DO’S AND DON’TS” for H1N1 infection at all important places.
16. All the schools should circulate pamphlets containing “DO’S AND DONT’S” for H1N1 infection and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) to the students.

Health Alert : H1 N1 INFLUENZA

2009-08-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

DO'S And DONT'S
IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE H1 N1 FLU:
Stay at home or in your hotel room if traveling, except to seek medical care.

Do not travel or go to work or school.
Avoid close contact with others for 7 days after your symptoms begin or until

you have been symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer.
EVERYONE SHOULD:
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
Wash your hands often with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand gel.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.
Avoid contact with ill persons.

Schools yet to seek approval on fee hike

2009-08-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad ,August 20th, 2009
Though the order regulating the fee structure in private schools was issued almost two weeks ago, none of the schools has approached the government so far to seek approval for their revised fee, which was hiked in the range of 40 per cent to 100 per cent this year.This has annoyed the government and it has asked parents to lodge complaints with the district education officers if school managements insist on payment of the hiked fee.The government order stipulates that the schools must collect the fee amount, which existed last year until the revised fee gets government approval.The government also mandated that the six-member governing council, proposed to be set up at each school to decide upon its fee structure, must have two members representing parents.As per the provisions of the GO that was issued on August 6, private schools must submit their proposals on fee hike through governing councils to the district fee regulatory committees (DFRCs) and seek approval.“None of the schools has approached DFRCs seeking approval for their revised fee structure so far. Parents should demand that the managements convene the meetings of governing councils immediately to decide on the rate of hike and to submit them to DFRCs for approval. Parents should not pay the fee that the schools insist on,” said Mr Suresh Chanda, secretary, department of secondary education.He said the government will initiate action against schools which insist on payment of hiked fee without approval from DFRCs.“Parents should bring to the notice of DEOs the schools that force them to pay the hiked fee. We will take action as per the penal provisions specified in the GO,” Mr Chanda said.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/hyderabad/schools-yet-seek-approval-fee-hike-255

Swine Flue in India

2009-08-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

Q: What precautions should one take at home?
A: Two things - soap and water can reduce the chance of infection by 30 per cent. All you need to do is keep washing your hand with soap and water frequently. Wash hands frequently with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand cleaner when soap and water are not available. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouthEat healthy: Proteins are essential to help your body maintain and build strength. Lean meat, poultry, fish, legumes, dairy, eggs, and nuts and seeds are good sources of protein.The Food and Drug Administration recommends that adults eat 50 grams of protein per day. Pregnant and nursing women need more. By eating foods high in protein, we also get the benefit of other healing nutrients such as vitamins B6 and B12, both of which contribute to a healthy immune system.Vitamin B6 is widely available in foods, including protein foods such as turkey and beans as well as potatoes, spinach, and enriched cereal grains. Proteins such as meats, milk, and fish also contain vitamin B12, a powerful immune booster.Minerals such as selenium and zinc work to keep the immune system strong. These minerals are found in protein rich foods such as beans, nuts, meat, and poultry.Exercise: Regular exercise may help prevent the flu. According to recent findings, when moderate exercise is repeated on a near daily basis, there is a cumulative immune-enhancing effect. That is, your strong immune system can fight flu better. When you exercise, your white blood cells -- the blood cells that fight infections in the body -- travel through your body more quickly, fighting bacteria and viruses (such as flu) more efficiently. To maintain good health, experts recommend at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity such as walking, swimming, biking, or running each day.Source: Flu India website, CDC, WebMD

Q: Will it help to wear a mask?
A: Information on the effectiveness of facemasks and respirators for decreasing the risk of influenza infection in community settings is extremely limited. So, it is difficult to assess their potential effectiveness in decreasing the risk of Swine Flu virus transmission in these settings. However, a well-fitted, FDA-approved mask together with other preventive measures MAY reduce the risk of contracting the flu. Those who are sick or caring for someone who is ill should consider using a mask or respirator if leaving the house becomes necessary. Source: CDC

Q: Can it be prevented?
A: Influenza antiviral drugs also can be used to prevent influenza when they are given to a person who is not ill, but who has been or may be near a person with swine influenza. When used to prevent the flu, antiviral drugs are about 70% to 90% effective. When used for prevention, the number of days that they should be used will vary depending on a person’s particular situation.Follow this general procedure to reduce the risk of catching or spreading the virus, you should:
Cover your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, using a tissue
Throw the tissue away quickly and carefully
Wash your hands regularly with soap and water
Clean hard surfaces (like door handles and remote controls) frequently with a normal cleaning product Keep away from others as much as possible. This is to keep from making others sick. Do not go to work or school while ill
Stay home for at least 24 hours after fever is gone, except to seek medical care or for other necessities. (Fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)
Drink clear fluids (such as water, broth, sports drinks, electrolyte beverages for infants) to keep from being dehydrated
Wear a facemask – if available and tolerable – when sharing common spaces with other household members to help prevent spreading the virus to others.
Source: CDC, National Health Service, UK website

Q: How does it spread?
A: The new swine flu virus is highly contagious, that is it spreads from person to person. The virus is spread through the droplets that come out of the nose or mouth when someone coughs or sneezes. If someone coughs or sneezes and they do not cover it, those droplets can spread about one metre (3ft). If you are very nearby you might breathe them in.Or, if someone coughs or sneezes into their hand, those droplets and the virus within them are easily transferred to surfaces that the person touches, such as door handles, hand rails, telephones and keyboards. If you touch these surfaces and touch your face, the virus can enter your system, and you can become infected.Source: National Health Service, UK website

Q: Who is at risk?
A: Those who are more at risk from becoming seriously ill with swine flu are people with:
chronic (long-term) lung disease, including people who have had drug treatment for their asthma within the past three years,
chronic heart disease,
chronic kidney disease,
chronic liver disease,
chronic neurological disease (neurological disorders include motor neurone disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis),
suppressed immune systems (whether caused by disease or treatment),
diabetes,
pregnant women,
people aged 65 or older, and
young children under five.
Source: National Health Service, UK website

Q: What is the treatment?
A: Antiviral drugs can be used to treat swine flu or to prevent infection with swine flu viruses. The anti-viral medicines oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are being used to treat people with swine flu. Antiviral drugs work by preventing the flu virus from reproducing. To be effective you need to take them within 48 hours of the symptoms beginning. These flu drugs can decrease the duration of the flu by 1 to 2 days if used within this early time period. These antivirals are usually given for a period of about 5-7 days. It's unclear whether these drugs can prevent complications of the flu. Tamiflu is approved for prevention and treatment in people 1 year old and older. Relenza is approved for treatment of people 7 years old and older and for prevention in people 5 years old and older. These medications must be prescribed by a health care professional. Side effects: Side effects of antiviral drugs may include nervousness, poor concentration, nausea, and vomiting. Relenza is not recommended for people with a history of breathing problems, such as asthma, because it may cause a worsening of breathing problems. Discuss side effects with your doctor.Self medication: Antibiotics are a no-no. Chances are that antibiotics will not help your flu symptoms. That's because flu, colds, and most sore throats and bronchitis are caused by viruses. In addition, taking antibiotics when you have a virus may do more harm than good. Taking antibiotics when they are not needed increases your risk of getting an infection later that resists antibiotic treatment. Antibiotics only cure certain infections due to bacteria -- and if taken carelessly, you may get more serious health problems than you bargained for.Is there a vaccine to treat swine flu virus? No, there isn’t a vaccine yet. But vaccines are being made in large quantities. Clinical tests will begin in August 2009. Depending on how long federal officials wait for the results of these tests, tens of millions of doses of swine flu vaccine could be ready as soon as September 2009, with more vaccine becoming available each month thereafter. The first doses of vaccine likely will go to pregnant women and young children ages 6 months to 4 years, with older school kids to follow.Source: Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Health Service, UK website, WebMD

Q: What should you do immediately?
A: Those of you who have travelled from the affected countries in the past ten days and show symptoms swine flu like fever, cough, sore throat and difficulty in breathing should immediately contact the telephone number given below or visit the nearby Government Hospital.Important contact numbers:Outbreak Monitoring Cell (Control Room, NICD): 011-23921401Websites: www.mohfw.nic.in and www.nicd.nic.inYou can also contact a toll free number 2392 1401 at the National Institute of Communicable DiseaseContact number for each cities:Bangalore BIAL Swine Flu Center - 91-80-22001490SDS TUBERCULOSIS & RAJIV GANDHI INSTITUTE OF CHEST DISEASES(Govt. of Karnataka), Hosur Road, Bangalore - 560029Helpline No: 91-80-26631923ChennaiCommunicable Disease Hospital, 87, T.H. Road, Tondiarpet, Chennai, Tamil NaduHyderabadGovt. General and Chest Diseases Hospital, Erragadda , Hyderabad Hospital Helpline Number - 040-23814939KolkataBeliaghata Infectious Diseases Hospital, 57, Beliaghata Main Road, KolkataMumbaiKasturba Hospital, Arthur Road, Sane Guruji Marg, Mumbai 400011 Ph: 022- 23083901 / 23092458 / 23000889New DelhiYellow Fever Quarantine Centre, Near AAI Residential Colony, New Delhi Ph: 91-11-25652129Influenza Ward, Ward no 5, Second Floor, New Building, RML Hospital, Delhi-1RML- 91-11-24525211,23404328,23365525- Ext 4328Source: Swine Flu India website

Q: What are the symptoms?

A: Swine flu symptoms are similar to the symptoms of regular flu and include fever of over 100.4°F, fatigue, lack of appetite, and cold. Some people with swine flu have also reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Nearly everyone with flu has at least two of these symptoms.So, how do you know if you have flu or just cold? There is one clue: when you have the flu, you feel flu symptoms sooner than you would cold symptoms, and they come on with much greater intensity. With the flu, you may feel very weak and fatigued for up to 2 or 3 weeks. You'll have muscle aches and periods of chills and sweats as fever comes and goes. You may also have a stuffy or runny nose, headache, and sore throat. Can I compare flu symptoms with cold symptoms? Yes. The following chart can help you compare flu symptoms with cold symptoms. Use it to lean the differences and similarities between flu and cold symptoms. Then, if you get flu symptoms, call your doctor and ask about an antiviral drug.
Symptoms
Cold
Flu
Fever
Rare
Characteristic, high 100-102 degrees F); lasts 3-4 days
Headache
Rare
Prominent
General aches, pains
Slight
Usual; often severe
Fatigue, Weakness
Quite mild
Can last up to 2-3 weeks
Extreme Exhaustion
Never
Early and prominent
Stuffy Nose
Common
Sometimes
Chest Discomfort,Cough
Mild to moderate; hacking cough
Common; can become severe
You cannot confirm if you have swine flu just based on your symptoms. Like seasonal flu, pandemic swine flu can cause neurologic symptoms in children. These events are rare, but, as cases associated with seasonal flu have shown, they can be very severe and often fatal.Doctors may offer a rapid flu test, but what you need to understand is a negative result doesn't necessarily mean you don't have the flu. Only lab tests can definitively show whether you've got swine flu. State health departments can do these tests. Source: WebMD

Q: What precautions should one take at schools?
A: Avoid close contact with people who are sick
People who are sick with an influenza-like illness should stay home and keep away from others as much as possible, including avoiding travel, for at least 24 hours after fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Fever should be gone without the use of fever-reducing medicine). Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing
Wash your hands often
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth

Q: Is it safe to travel?
A: Avoid travelling unnecessarily. However, if you must travel, check how the country you're going to handles swine flu. Although, the WHO doesn't recommend travel restrictions, many countries have set up their own H1N1 policies, and some travellers have been screened or quarantined in other countries because of swine flu concerns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:H1N1_map.svg

Parents Contacts

2009-08-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

- Are you getting regular updates via email ?
- Are you getting regular updates via SMSs ?

No, Please update your contacts (email ID & Mobile number) to dpskpwa@gmail.com or idealpwa@gmail.com . or SMS IPWA to 56070 .
Or if your contacts have changed in the recent past, please update us, to keep you updated on various activities that we carry out on regular basis. We value your association.

Writ Detail to Quash G.O. 29 June,2009

2009-08-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

33818 /2009Allahabad Bench	U.P. Vidyalaya Prabhandhak Samiti,kanpur
38522	Delhi Public School,Varanasi
38523	St.John School,Varanasi
36841	Delhi Public School and 8 Other Gautam Budhnagar
36952	Darbari Lal Foundation,Ghaziabad
38168	Amity Public School,Ghaziabad
38170	Khaitan Public School,Ghaziabad
38401	Cambridge School, Gautam Budh Nagar
39183	Modern School
39609	Durga Public School,Gorakhpur
39610	Ratna Mem Public School,Gorakhpur
39693	Harihar Singh Memorial Academy, Tisaura, Varanasi
39869	Apeejay Education Society, Gautam Budhnagar
40505/2009	Delhi Public School, Yamunapuram, Bulandshahar
4009/2009 Lucknow Bench	Dr.Virendra Swaroop Education centre,kanpur

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
?Court No. - 39
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 33818 of 2009
Petitioner :- U.P. Vidyalaya Prabhandhak Thru Secy.
Respondent :- State Of U.P. And Others
Petitioner Counsel :- Tarun Agrawal,Ravi Kant
Respondent Counsel :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Dilip Gupta,J.

Counter affidavit on behalf of the State has been filed. Learned counsel for the petitioner prays for and is granted two weeks time to file the rejoinder affidavit.

List this petition on 28th August, 2009 along with the records of Writ Petition Nos. 39609 of 2009, 39610 of 2009, 39869 of 2009, 40505 of 2009, 36841 of 2009, 36952 of 2009, 38170 of 2009, 38168 of 2009, 38401 of 2009, 39693 of 2009 and Writ Petition No. 39183 of 2009.

In the meantime learned Standing Counsel may file the counter affidavits in the remaining petitions.

Interim order shall continue till 28th August, 2009.
Order Date :- 10.8.2009
NSC
This is an UNCERTIFIED copy for information/reference. For authentic copy please refer to certified copy only. In case of any mistake, please bring it to the notice of Deputy Registrar(Copying).
Page Judgment Text 1 of 1
http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/WebShowJudgmentAfterSecurityCheck.do 10/08/2009

फीस बढ़ाने में स्कूलों की मनमानी अब नहीं चलेगी

2009-08-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

नई दिल्ली, जागरण ब्यूरो : फीस बढ़ाने में स्कूलों की मनमानी नहीं चलेगी। बढ़ायी गयी फीस उचित है कि नहीं, इस पर अंतिम फैसला सरकार ही करेगी। शुक्रवार को गैर सहायता प्राप्त निजी स्कूलों को सुप्रीम कोर्ट के इस फैसले से करारा झटका लगा। सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने फीस निर्धारण में सरकार का नियंत्रण समाप्त करने की उनकी मांगें ठुकरा दीं और अपने वर्ष 2004 के फैसले को बरकरार रखा। सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने वर्ष 2004 के फैसले को चुनौती देने वाली स्कूलों की पुनर्विचार याचिका खारिज कर दी है। एक्शन कमेटी आफ अनएडेड प्राइवेट स्कूल, सेंट जेवियर्स स्कूल, माटेर डाई स्कूल व न्यू इरा पब्लिक स्कूल ने सुप्रीम कोर्ट में पुनर्विचार याचिकाएं दाखिल कर फीस बढ़ाने में सरकार का नियंत्रण समाप्त करने की मांग की थी। स्कूलों की दलील थी कि फीस निर्धारण का उन्हें पूर्ण हक मिलना चाहिए। वैसे भी दिल्ली स्कूल एजूकेशन रूल 1973 की धारा 17 (3) के तहत बढ़े खर्चो के हिसाब से स्कूलों को फीस बढ़ाने का हक है। शिक्षकों के नए वेतनमान लागू करने के लिए उन्हें फीस बढ़ानी पड़ेगी। उनका कहना था कि कोर्ट का फैसला दिल्ली स्कूल एजूकेशन कानून के खिलाफ है। शुक्रवार को सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने अपने फैसले मे कहा कि गैर सहायता प्राप्त स्कूलों को खर्च के मुताबिक फीस तय करने की छूट है, लेकिन बढ़ायी गयी फीस उचित है कि नहीं, यह राज्य शिक्षा निदेशक ही तय करेंगे। फीस निर्धारण में अंतिम फैसला राज्य शिक्षा निदेशक का ही होगा। कोर्ट ने कहा है कि स्कूल कैपिटेशन फीस अथवा बिल्डिंग आदि के नाम पर पैसा नहीं ले सकते। हालांकि स्कूलों को एक मामले में थोड़ी राहत जरूर मिल गई है। कोर्ट ने कहा कि होने वाली कमाई का अतिरिक्त धन स्कूल उसी संस्था के अन्य स्कूल में लगा सकता है।
http://in.jagran.yahoo.com/epaper/index.php?location=30&edition=2009-08-08&pageno=13

Schools can hike fee only with Govt consent: SC

2009-08-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN 8 August 2009, 12:16am IST
NEW DELHI: In a major victory for parents resisting `arbitrary' fee hikes by private unaided schools in the capital and a partial relief for the schools, the Supreme Court on Friday allowed school managements to increase fee but only with prior approval of Delhi government's Director of Education. By leashing the school fee structure, which has seen massive increase in the recent past, to DoE's consent at the commencement of an academic year, the apex court said it wanted to protect parents from being fleeced in the name of capitation charges by greedy managements. The schools, however, got a small friendly clarification in the judgment which said that if more than one private unaided school was under a single management, then surplus funds of school could be transferred to another. However, this also came with a big rider - the money cannot not be transferred to the parent society and that the funds were to be utilized only for the purpose of education. A bench comprising Justices S B Sinha, S H Kapadia and Cyriac Joseph gave separate judgments on the issue. But, the majority judgment flowed from Justices Kapadia and Joseph, both of whom decided to dismiss a batch of petitions from schools seeking a review of SC's 2004 judgment. In another significant order aimed at putting a lid of profiteering by schools, the judgment said, ``Every recognized unaided school covered by the (Delhi School Education) Act shall maintain accounts on the principles of accounting applicable to non-business/not-for-profit organisations.'' By permitting transfer of surplus funds from a school to its sister concern, the SC did take care of a long-standing grievance of the schools that a ban on shifting extra money had severely hindered establishment of new schools and upgrading infrastructure. It also said that the fees could be increased undwer the mechanism provided in the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 and the relevant rules on increase in salaries of teachers and staff as well as infrastructure improvements, but such enhanced fee structure could only be implemented with prior approval from DoE. The court also reiterated its earlier direction which stated that ``each school is required to file a statement of fees every year before the ensuing academic session under Section 17(3) of the Act with DoE''. ``The school shall not increase tuition fee without prior sanction from the Directorate of Education, Delhi Administration, and shall follow provisions of Delhi School Education Act/Rules, 1973 and other instructions issued from time to time,'' the court said. In its 2004 judgment, the court had taken a serious objection to the manner in which schools were being used as a front for profiteering by managements and the societies. By dismissing the review petitions and issuing a clarification, the code applicable for the schools is as follows:
* The DoE can regulate fee in accordance with Section 17(3) of the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 and Delhi School Education Rules, 1973
* The funds of the school can be transferred to sister concerns under the same management only for the purpose of educational activities
* The schools which have obtained land from the government at concessional rates, subject to the condition of giving freeships to poor children, are bound to adhere to the land lease condition.
dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/delhi/Schools-can-hike-fee-only-with-Govt-consent-SC/articleshow/4869362.cms

Pvt schools have no right to hike fees: SC

2009-08-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Updated on Friday, August 07, 2009, 14:20 IST
New Delhi: In a major decision, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that private unaided schools do not have the right to hike fees charged from students. Hearing a review petition filed by the Action Committee for Unaided Private Schools seeking reconsideration of a 2004 apex court verdict, in which the SC had upheld the Director Education’s authority to take a final decision in fee hikes being implemented by schools on the ground of implementing pay commission recommendations for teachers, the SC today said only the government can regulate private school fees.
The unaided private schools need to take the permission of the Director Education before hiking fees, the court said in its judgement. While filing the review petition, the unaided private schools’ action committee had said that the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations required the schools to pay teachers higher salary. The committee had also argued in the review petition that the 2004 judgment was contrary to provisions of the Delhi School Education Act. Today’s SC verdict is a major victory for parents of school children who have been opposing private schools’ move to hike fees periodically. The SC in its 2004 verdict had also endorsed the Director Education’s move to put a freeze on the fee structure and halt transfer of funds from schools to the parent society.
http://www.zeenews.com/news553515.html

Fee hike judgement today

2009-08-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: It is going to be a big day for parents of schoolchildren and the schools themselves as the Supreme Court on Friday will pronounce its verdict on the discretion of private schools to hike fees periodically and the supervisory role of the government.

In its 2004 judgment, the apex court had upheld the power of the Director Education to have the final say in fee hikes being resorted to by schools on the ground of implementing pay commission recommendations for teachers.

It had also okayed the decision of the Director Education to freeze the fee structure and stop transfer of funds from schools to the parent society.

However, the Action Committee for Unaided Private Schools had moved a review petition seeking reconsideration of the 2004 verdict and had argued that teachers needed to be paid higher salary under the sixth pay commission recommendations.

The review petition, moved through advocate Romy Chacko, had also suggested that the 2004 judgment was contrary to provisions of the Delhi School Education Act.

Some Articles

2009-08-05T23:57:00.000-07:00

अंग्रेजी स्कूलों में शुल्कवृद्धी पर शासन
23rd July

Now, private schools under CAG scanner

2009-07-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

TNN 31 July 2009, 11:52pm IST
NEW DELHI: If it was tough for you to figure out those hidden charges under the guise of charges for development, building, swimming pool and library in your child's school fee bill, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will now demystify it for you. On Friday, CAG said it has decided to audit accounts of unaided private schools of Delhi. The parents in Delhi who took to the streets after the recent steep fee hike by schools in the name of Sixth Pay Commission are sure to rejoice over the CAG decision. The powerful private school lobby in the Capital is, however, bound to resist it. This year accounts of only 25 schools will be taken up for review and in the next round more schools will be subjected to the audit which will be cyclical in nature. The audit will look into land use by schools, examine their fee structure and also ascertain if they cater to poor children or not as prescribed by Delhi School Education Act, 1973. The decision, CAG said, has been taken under the provisions of Delhi School Education Act, 1973, and the Delhi High Court order in Delhi Abhibhawak Mahasangh vs Union of India case. Delhi HC had said that "inspection of schools, audit of accounts and compliance with provisions of the Act and rules by private recognised unaided schools could have prevented the present state of affairs. The tution fee cannot be fixed to recover capital expenditure to be incurred on the properties of the society.'' Apart from the HC order, CAG cited provisions of Delhi School Education Act and said the law mandates it to audit accounts. DSEA says the managing committee of every recognised private school shall file audited financial and other returns with the director. The rules under DSEA Act also make it compulsory for schools to maintain accounts of fees and contributions collected by it as per government rules. Another rule says the accounts can be audited by auditors authorised by the director and also by officers authorised by the CAG. Delhi HC had in its order said the question of commercialisation of education and exploitation of parents by individual schools could be authoritatively determined on thorough examination of the accounts and other records of each school.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City/Delhi/Now-private-schools-under-CAG-scanner/articleshow/4843569.cms

August dialogue : School Fee Hike: What is the real problem?

2009-07-31T19:08:00.000-07:00

August dialogue : School Fee Hike: What is the real problem?

on 8 August 2009, 6.30 PM - 8.00 PM,

Gulmohar Audi,India Habitat Centre

Fee Hike Committee

2009-07-23T00:51:00.000-07:00

अभिभावक एसो. ने शुरू की हेल्पलाइन
१७-०७-०९

Hindustan Times
17/07/09

National Knowledge Commission (NKC) Report submitted to Prime Minister of India

2009-07-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

Dated 3 February 2008
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
As you have repeatedly emphasised, ensuring quality school education to all is the foundation
upon which any further advances towards a knowledge society must be based. Noting the crucial
importance of school education, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) held a series of
workshops and consultations around the country involving a very wide range of stakeholders, to
discuss issues of quantity, quality and access in school education.
NKC recognises that the primary responsibility for school education is borne by the state
governments, and therefore any policy changes must be with the full participation and
involvement of the States. Nevertheless, NKC believes that positive changes in systems of
schooling will require the active involvement of the central government as well state
governments, not only in the matter of providing resources but also in promoting organisational
and other changes.
We have a number of suggestions and recommendations covering the different aspects of school
education, but the essential thrust can be summarised in terms of more resources, more
decentralisation and more flexibility. The full set of recommendations, with details, is
provided in the accompanying Note. This letter summarises the most important areas of possible intervention.
1. Central legislation for the Right to Education, backed by financial commitment:
NKC endorses the speedy enactment of a central legislation that will ensure the right of all
children in the country to good quality school education up to Class VIII, supported with
financial commitments of the central and state governments. This obviously requires
substantially increased public spending for both elementary and secondary school education,
which must be seen as a priority area for spending. Currently school education is highly
segmented, even in government-run institutions, as a result of the parallel track of “education
centres” in some states. These separate systems must be integrated to give all children access to
schools of acceptable quality, which will obviously require additional spending.
2. More flexibility in disbursal of funds: However, there is a strong case for changes in the
manner in which such expenditure is incurred. The current norms for central government
disbursal to states of funds for , including for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the planned
SUCCESS program for secondary education and other central schemes, are too rigid and must be
made more flexible. NKC strongly recommends a system of funds transfer and accounting that
will allow for regional and other differences as well as changing requirements over time, and
thereby allow state governments to use the resources in the most effective way. There should
also be greater flexibility in disbursing funds down to the school level and a greater degree of
autonomy of local level management in the use of funds. The norms and rules should allow
schools to adapt to local conditions and meet particular requirements of their students.
3. Decentralisation and greater local autonomy: Community participation is an important
instrument to ensure accountability and improve the day-to-day functioning of schools. This in
turn means that the management of schools, including the use and management of funds, should
be decentralised to local authorities as far as possible, whether they be panchayats, Village
Education Committees or municipalities, and to School Boards that have representation of all
stakeholders including parents.
4. Expansion of functional literacy: NKC would like to stress the continuing importance of a
focus on expanding functional literacy among the population. Illiteracy remains a major problem,
even among the age-group 15-35 years, and therefore literacy programmes must be expanded
rather than reduced, and given a different focus that is directed towards improving life skills and
meeting felt needs, especially (but not only) among the youth.
5. Planning for school infrastructure: It is important to remember that land is an essential
requirement of schools, and this requirement is likely to increase in the near future given the
expansion implied by demographic changes and need to ensure universal schooling. Therefore
urban master plans and local development plans must explicitly incorporate the physical
requirements for schooling, including provisions for play grounds and other school facilities.
6. Enabling and regulating mechanisms for private schools: Since private schools play an
important role in the provision of education, there is need for both enabling and regulating
mechanisms to be developed and strengthened for them. There should be transparent, normbased and straightforward procedures for the recognition of private schools, to reduce
harassment and bureaucratic delay. There should also be transparent criteria as for the
disbursement of aid from the government to some self-financing schools, especially those which
cater to underprivileged children, and clear norms with respect to the ability of school
managements to raise resources from other sources. The monitoring of private schools, in terms
of ensuring a transparent admissions process, regulation of fee structures, as well as meeting
minimum set standards for quality of teaching and infrastructure, also requires attention. The
possibility of greater exchange between schools, including mentoring of one school by another,
should be allowed and encouraged.
7. Database on school education: Educational planning and monitoring are made much more
difficult because of the lack of comprehensive and accurate data on schools, school-age children
and actual attendance of both students and teachers. The collection and speedy dissemination of
accurate and current data on schooling must be made a priority. It is necessary to create a
complete database on schools and school-age children so as to track the actual coverage and
quality of schooling at different levels, and to make it widely available in a timely manner. Such
data collection may be made an essential part of the fund allocation for school education, with
appropriate institutional mechanisms.
8. More co-ordination between departments: The multiplicity of management structures and
government departments that currently governs schooling creates confusion, unnecessary
replication and possibly inconsistent strategies across different schools. There must be greater
co-ordination between different departments of government on school education policy, even
while ensuring more autonomy to the local management of schools.
9. National evaluation body for monitoring quality: Educational administration also needs to
be more conscious of actual learning outcomes at different levels, which will determine both
policy and functioning. NKC therefore proposes a national evaluation body to monitor the
quality of both government and private schools, using a results-based monitoring framework
based on a short list of monitorable criteria that include both process and outcome indicators.
10. Revamping school inspection: The system of school inspection needs to be revamped and
revitalised, with a greater role for local stake holders and greater transparency in the system. The solution does not lie in simply expanding the system – rather, we need to develop systems to ensure meaningful monitoring, including provision of greater facilities to school inspectors, a
separation of inspection of qualitative and administrative aspects, transparency in the criteria of
inspection, and greater involvement of local stakeholders.
11. Teachers and teacher training: Teachers are the single most important element of the
school system, and the country is already facing a severe shortage of qualified and motivated
school teachers at different levels. It is urgent to restore the dignity of school teaching as a
profession and provide more incentives for qualified and committed teachers. Non-teaching
official duties such as electoral activities should not be allowed to interfere with the teaching
process. Forums that allow and encourage teachers to exchange ideas, information and
experiences, including a web-based portal, should be developed.
At the same time, there should be transparent systems for ensuring accountability of school
teachers. As far as possible, teachers should be recruited to particular schools.
The training of teachers is a major area of concern at present, since both pre-service and in service training of school teachers is extremely inadequate and also poorly managed in most
states. Pre-service training needs to be improved and differently regulated in both public and
private institutions, while systems for in-service training require expansion and major reform that allows for greater flexibility.
12. Reforms in the curriculum and examination system: Curriculum reform remains a
critically important issue in almost all schools. School education must be made more relevant to
the lives of children. There is need to move away from rote-learning to understanding concepts,
developing good comprehension and communication skills and learning how to access
knowledge independently. This also requires substantial changes in the examination system,
especially at Board level but also earlier.
13. Use of Information and Communication Technology: Wherever feasible, ICT
should be made more accessible to teachers, students and administration for learning,
training, research, administration, management, monitoring, etc. This requires the
provision of more facilities such as computers as well as connectivity and broadband
facilities. Computer-aided learning also requires training of teachers and other staff in
order to make the best use of the technology.
14. English language teaching: Proficiency in English is widely perceived as an important
avenue for employment and upward mobility, which also greatly facilitates the pursuit of higher
education. The incorporation of English into the curriculum through the teaching of English as a
language in Class I and teaching of one other subject in English medium in later classes requires
making pedagogical changes to contextualise language learning, increasing the availability of
English language teachers and providing more bilingual and supplementary teaching materials.
At the same time, mutlilinguality must be promoted and language issues must be explicitly taken
on board in designing school curricula and methods of pedagogy.
15. Interventions to ensure access of educationally deprived categories: Special interventions
are necessary to ensure greater access to education of educationally deprived categories, and
some proposals for this are developed in more detail in the accompanying Note. Obviously,
specific measures are required to ensure greater enrolment and retention of girl students.

Education of SC children must be a priority, which necessitates both flexibility of approach and
avoidance of discrimination. The access of children from Scheduled Tribes requires more
flexible and sensitive schooling strategies. Language issues must be explicitly taken on board in
designing school curricula and methods of pedagogy. Special strategies are required to ensure
greater access to schools for children in backward regions, remote locations and difficult terrains.
Official strategies for ensuring better access of Muslim children to schooling are excessively
focussed on madrassas which cater to only a tiny minority of such children; the emphasis should
be on creating enabling conditions for Muslim children in the general school system. Children of
seasonal migrants require special conditions and efforts to ensure continuous access to schooling.
Similarly, labouring children require incentives and bridge courses. The needs of physically
disadvantaged children, as well as teachers, have to be factored in more thoroughly in provisions
for school education.
We realise that there is wide diversity across states in terms of progress towards achieving
universal elementary education, and also diversity within states with respect to the quality of
school education. But we believe that these proposals, which require the active involvement of
the central government as well state governments, will go some way in terms of ensuring
universal access to elementary education, wider access to secondary education as well as better
quality and greater relevance of all schooling. Given the strong synergies between this and other
areas such as libraries, translation, knowledge networks, etc., these suggestions should be seen in
conjunction with other recommendations that have already been made in these other areas, as
part of a systematic set of knowledge initiatives for the young.
We look forward to being engaged in taking these ideas forward.
With warm personal regards,
Sam Pitroda
Chairman,
National Knowledge Commission
Copy to
1. Sh. Arjun Singh, Minister Human Resources Development, Government of India
2. Sh. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of
India

DM issues notice to three city schools

2009-07-20T21:43:00.000-07:00

KANPUR: Acting tough against the three prominent city schools, including Sanatan Dharam Education Centre, DPS Kalyanpur and Sir Padampat Singhania Education Centre, district magistrate, Anil Kumar Sagar has issued a show-cause notice to all for not depositing balance sheets and records displaying the amount of fees charged from the students within the given period of time. The DM had asked the management of these schools to submit the records and balance sheets of the schools failing which he would have to write to the state administration for withdrawing their no objection certificate (NOC). "We have issued notices to the three schools and asked for an explanation for not depositing the documents asked for. More so, the school managements have been asked to show the balance sheets showing that the school has been giving the salaries according to the sixth pay commission and the records of the approved fees being charged from the students," said Anil Kumar. He further added: "According to the government order, all the schools of the city were asked to deposit the asked balance sheets and records before July 16 and the schools which failed to do so were issued notices." It needs to be mentioned here that following the fee hike in the schools, much of the protests was made against the Sanatan Dharam Education Centre and the parents of the students of SDEC tried to pressurise the management for reducing the increased fees. Meanwhile, administration had asked for the submission of school fee records and balance sheets. Similarly, the DPS Kalyanpur School and Sir Padampat Singhania Education Centre were issued the notices for not submitting the balance sheets. Interestingly, the DM has already written to the administration for withdrawing the NOC of Seth Anandram Jaipuria School for premature retirement of its teachers and for not giving them salaries in proportion to the fees hiked. However, if the DM writes for withdrawing the NOCs of these schools, it would be a big blow to their affiliation, which means that the future of over 8,000 students studying in these schools would be jeopardised.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS-City-Kanpur-DM-issues-notice-to-three-city-schools/articleshow/4795642.cms

Some News Paper Publish the Articles

2009-07-20T03:24:00.000-07:00

Amar Ujala on 17th July 09

Danik Jagran

Hindustan Publish the Article

Some more articles..

2009-07-17T04:16:00.000-07:00

17th July 09

Committee shall not take final decision in matter till next date of listing

2009-07-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

International unaided schools move court over fee hike ban

2009-07-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Swati Deshpande, TNN 23 June 2009, 01:47am IST
MUMBAI: School education issues are all set to dominate matters before the Bombay high court this week. Even as a flurry of writs is still being filed by parents of students in ICSE and CBSE schools against the state's controversial 90% SSC reservations for junior college admissions, an association of international schools in the city has also moved the HC to challenge the state-imposed blanket ban on fee hikes. The schools-which attract children of well heeled parents seeking international curriculum-contend that the ban is illegal and unconstitutional. Sixteen schools, run by private unaided managements offering education under affiliation from boards such as the International General Certificate of Secondary Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, and the International Baccalaureate, Geneva, Switzerland, including the Jankidevi Public School, Singapore International School, Utpal Sanghvi School, Poddar World and B D Somani International School, have filed a petition against the state's government resolution to prevent fee hike. The GR issued on May 8 has prevented all private unaided schools in the state from increasing fees for the academic years 2009-10 till a proposed fee committee is set up. "The GR threatens all such private unaided schools with cancellation of the no-objection certification. Therefore, their very existence is in gross violation of the guarantee under the Constitution to establish and run private schools, said the petition filed through law firm, Nankani & Associates. The petition, filed last Friday, will come up for hearing on June 26. The association has alleged a clear political motive behind the fee hike ban. "The GR not only violates the landmark ruling and law declared by the 11-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the TMA Pai case permitting greater autonomy to private colleges for charging fees, but it is clearly a political move with eyes on the forthcoming state elections. The ban is "arbitrary and with no legal authority and would take the autonomy of all private unaided schools in violation of the constitutional guarantee'', the petition said. It was a challenge to fees raised by Balbharti Public school, Kharghar that led to the ban. A statement was made by the government lawyer in the Balbharti School case that the state would issue instructions to the school not to implement its fee hike. The HC, had then directed the state to prohibit fee hike in all educational institutions from nursery to junior college till a committee is formed by the state. "The restriction is not only unreasonable but destroys the very essence of autonomy. Besides the state has no power to either approve or disappove the fees being charged by unaided schools,'' the petition stated.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4689734.cms?frm=mailtofriend

School given deadline to improve buses

2009-07-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

15th July 09
15th July 09

15th July 09
13th July 09

13th July 09

11th July 09

Schools violating safety norms

2009-07-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

NAGPUR: How safe is your child in school? At least from fire safety point of view, there is a cause for worry. In this respect, most schools, from the snooty ones to municipal ones, are the same. They all have been flouting fire safety norms for years and getting away with it.
Fire Brigade sources said that most schools start with a "temporary"No Objection Certificate on an understanding that they would install the necessary equipment within one year. Shockingly, not a single educational institute has approached the Fire Brigade with compliance report for getting a permanent NOC.
"Most schools are interested in just admitting more children in schools, they are not bothered about providing a safe environment for them. Running schools in closed spaces and in busy marketplaces could cause the worst accidents," a fire official said.
"The school managements always think of money but not of children’s safety," he pointed out. "When we deny NOC to any school or college because they do not have adequate fire safety measures, they bring political pressure on us. We then have no option but to provide a temporary NOC (for a period of one-year)," he claimed. Many of the educational institutes in the city are owned or backed by politicians.
"The accident in a school in Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu) where some 90 children were charred to death some years ago is a grim reminder of the state of affairs and showed how vulnerable school buildings are," the officer pointed out.
Sources admitted that NMC too was to blame. Over 20 of its own school buildings were in dilapidated condition and thus a safety hazard by themselves. A senior officer pointed out most highrise buildings of schools were not at all safe. Citing an example, the officer pointed out that a renowned school on Koradi road failed to follow fire safety norms in its building. However, when the department refused to permit NOC, the school used political pressure and got it.
Even the buildings of newer schools, which should have all the equipment, lack minimum facilities. Often there is no proper ventilation, no fire extinguisher, and most importantly no proper exit points to rush out during emergency. These factors can be critical in determine whether occupants come out safely during a fire emergency or get trapped inside.
What is worse is that many schools are now opening branches outside the corporation limits where even preliminary checking does not exist. They come under gram panchayats which have no intention or capability to check fire safety norms.
According to Incharge Chief Fire Officer Chandrashekhar Jadhav, barring a handful, none of the 800 schools, 200 junior colleges and around 200 undergraduate and post-graduate colleges, in the city do not have proper fire fighting equipment.
Many do not conduct safety drills so that students know how to leave the building in an orderly manner in emergency. Moreover, education department also does not bother to check reality while granting permission to start a new school. It should strictly adhere to the rules while extending recognition to schools, Jadhav said.Govind Nandede, deputy director of education (Nagpur division), said that the department had already instructed all schools not only in the city but in the entire Nagpur division to follow all safety norms strictly.
"If any institution fails to adhere the norm, strict action like de-recognition of the particular institute will be taken," he added. However, he could not explain why recognition had not been withdrawn even in a single case.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nagpur/Schools_violating_safety_norms/articleshow/3481278.cms

Directives to ensure the safety of school children

2009-07-15T08:02:00.001-07:00

KANPUR: Concerned about the schoolchildren falling victim to the accidents, traffic department on Monday issued strict instructions to the principals of all the city schools for strictly enforcing the directives passed by the apex court while dealing with the writ petitions (Civil) 13029 of 1985 dated November 20, 1997 and December 16, 1997, regarding the school conveyance. The directives are:
* `School bus' must be clearly mentioned on the back and front of the school conveyance * The conveyance if hired should clearly be marked with -- `On School Duty'
* The school vehicle must have a first-aid box * Horizontal grills must be fitted on the windows of school buses
* A fire-extinguisher is a must have in the school bus
* The colour of the school bus should be yellow only and it should carry the school name and telephone number.
* The doors of the school bus should have proper locks
* Every bus driver must have a driving experience of at least five years and he should not have violated any traffic rule in the past
* An attendant should accompany the schoolchildren in the bus
* There should be enough space below the bus seats so as to keep the school bags
* Any parent/guardian or a teacher may also travel along to ensure the safety of the school kids
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS-City-Kanpur-Directives-to-ensure-the-safety-of-schoolchildren/articleshow/4773603.cms

Putting the life of schoolchildren at risk

2009-07-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

KANPUR
Even after the recent accident in the state capital, Lucknow, in which a schoolgoing kid and a bus driver were tragically killed, travelling by school buses, by and large, continues to be unsafe in the industrial city. The accident is yet to prompt the district authorities to take preventive measures to ensure the security and safety of the young ones. In the absence of proper enforcement of law in the case of transportation of schoolchildren, the blatant violation of the supreme court orders for school buses is rampant. The tiny-tots are commuting at the mercy of unskilled drivers and cleaners in the shaky and overloaded buses with even the basic requirements — like first-aid kit, fire extinguishers, horizontal grills on windows, school name or mandatory telephone numbers painted on the body of the bus etc — not being met by the bus owners. During a survey by team TOI on Wednesday, as many as six buses were spotted which were illegally operating as school buses in the city. A bus spotted at VIP Road had tinted windows with `school bus' mentioned on a temporary wooden-board placed on its front. Another bus plying between Kalyanpur and Lal Bangla did not have mandatory horizontal grills on windows. Although, as per transport authorities, at the maximum 54 children can travel in a school bus, more than 80 schoolchildren were found travelling in a bus ferrying students of a convent school in Azadnagar area. Most of the buses were not painted with the prescribed yellow colour and did not have proper display of registration numbers on number plates. Interestingly, in a circular sent to schools recently, the transport authorities had instructed school authorities to ensure that their bus drivers should have valid driving licence and at least five years of driving experience. Besides, school buses must be fitted with safety gadgets, including a first-aid box and a fire extinguisher. The name, address and phone numbers of the school must be painted on the school bus in a way that it should be clearly visible, says the circular. "School buses are still running as they used to do earlier and there is no proper check on the drivers," said Kavi Pandey, a resident of Usmanpur Kidwainagar. It is the kids ravelling in these buses who suffer the most and whose life is put at risk as the drivers are in a hurry to rush through school duties, to move on to ferrying employees of other institutions, he added. School principals also admitted they had no control over contract buses. However, schools have started ensuring that there is at least one attendant present in each bus. ARTO, Sanjay Tewari, said that about 240 buses attached with the schools and 13 private school vehicles operating in the city had been sent letters with a list of suggestions to ensure safety of schoolchildren. The department also has constituted checking squads who have been given special instructions to inspect school buses for overspeeding, overloading and other potential hazards. "We have given instructions to schools to ensure safety of their children through this letter," Tewari told TOI. The principal of a reputed school said that safety of the children is their first priority, and only those with more than five years of driving experience were being hired. However, there were many schools, which were unaware of the circular from the transport department, but insisted that only experienced drivers are appointed for school buses.
Following are the guidelines as ordered by the Supreme Court:
* Words `School Bus' should be mentioned in bold on its rear and front
* If a bus is on contract basis, `On School Duty' should be clearly painted
* Bus should be equipped with a first-aid box and a fire extinguisher
* The windows must be fitted with horizontal grills
* School name and telephone number should be mentioned on it
* School authorities should depute an attendant
* No bus belonging to or hired by an educational institution shall be driven by a driver who has less than 10 years of experience
* Bus should be challaned if caught more than twice for a minor traffic offence or for any offence relating to rash and negligent driving
* Driver should be in uniform and carry an identity card
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kanpur/Putting-the-life-of-schoolchildren-at-risk/articleshow/4492404.cms

Understanding of Fee Regulatory Committee report by HSPA

2009-07-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

DPaS is the founding member of Hyderabad Schools’ Parents Association (HSPA) which is working almost round the clock on the aspect of irrational fee hikes by various schools across twin cities. Today HSPA has support of parents from over 20 plus schools like Meridian, DPS, Princess Esin, Glendale, Chirec, CAL, Niraj, Sunflower etc to name a few.
This communication is intended to clarify & clear all doubts that most parents from across schools raised during various forums including the confusion created by media. This is a summary of general understanding of HSPA members after various meetings with authorities concerned with this report (political & bureaucratic) in last few days. This is intended for information to the members only & not for general circulation & we at the most can clarify on what has been written & doesn’t necessarily be an exact replica of the report submitted (which at present is not for public circulation) to the Government of AP.Excerpts of the Recommendation: The expert Fee Regulatory Committee, headed by Luv Agarwal, Commissioner for Intermediate/ Collegiate Education, Navin Mittal, Hyderabad Collector, B Mallamma, Joint Secretary (Education), N Ramana Rao, Additional Secretary (law) and Narayana Reddy, Principal of a corporate school; have given the following
recommendations with respect to the fee that can be charged by private schools across Andhra Pradesh:
1. Private School fee has been divided into three basic parts as:a) One time fee (registration, admission, security caution deposit)b) Annual recurring academic/ tuition fee andc) Optional annual user fee.
2. One time Fee: The committee noted that several schools were collecting an amounts ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 30,000 just for the admission application form. The committee said that since this is only administrative task the application cost should be less than Rs 100. Admission fee should not be more than Rs 500, as this entail only minor administrative cost. Schools should not collect a caution deposit of more than Rs 5,000 and it has to be refundable, the committee added.
3. Annually recurring academic/ tuition fee: No private schools in the state should be allowed to collect more than Rs 24,000 per annum for students up to Class V and Rs 30,000 per annum for students from Class VI to XII. These are upper ceilings and a specific fee for a school is applicable based on the infrastructure, facilities, education pattern, experience of teachers and more importantly the income/expenditure statement etc. The fee depending on these parameters can be anywhere between Rs 2,000/- - Rs 30,000/- per annum.
This should be also read in conjunction with point 11, 13, 14 where School governing Council and PTA has lot of control to see a regulated fee hike, if necessary.
4. All cost heads like excursion, sport, activities, computer etc should be a part of this academic / tuition fee. Seeing the accounts of even several hi-end corporate schools, the committee found out that even in most expensive schools, the genuine monthly education expenses are not more than Rs 1000 – Rs 1600 per month per child. School should also consider all future growth, expansion plan and add all such related capital expenditures as a part of school annual operating cost. These developmental costs can’t be more than 15% of the overall school operating cost for basic education and should be a part of the above mentioned tuition fee.
5. This fee should be collected in phases/ terms.
6. In rural areas, this upper ceiling of tuition fee has been fixed at Rs 15,000 per annum for all classes I-XII.
7. Optional Annual User fee: To be collected in phases/ terms, this includes fee for heads like transport, food, books, uniform and hostel. They are kept outside of the upper ceiling for Annual tuition fee. They are expected to be provided by all schools, however they are termed as a “user” fee, as the student/ parents can use these services, if they find suitable/ logical. These services should be optional and should operate at no-profit basis.
8. For all books and Stationary, school should publish the address details of 3 shops, where these are available openly and competitively for parents’ comfort. School can arrange to have a counter for sell of books and stationery's in the school campus, only if they are being sold at a discount on the MRP. Same applies for Uniform.
9. The User fee would be decided based on usage i.e. transportation fee should be charged based on the distance between the house & school and not by the management’s whims and fancies.
10. Fee revision Process: The Annually recurring academic/ tuition fee structure can be revised only once in 3 years.
11. Schools should also give official fee receipts in the name of the school only.
12. Governance Structure: The panel recommended Constitution of district-level fee regulatory committees.
If the school management wants to increase the fee, it will have to seek the approval of this fee regulatory authority with collector, joint collector, DEO, a senior finance resource (who can audit school balance sheets) and other officials as members.
13. The committee has reiterated that as defined in existing GO – MS1, there should be a Governing council in every school that includes representatives from parents, teachers and management. As already defined in existing GO– MS1, an active Parent Teacher Association (PTA) should be constituted for every school and it should be consulted on the fee hike as a first step. PTA should review and discuss hiked fee based on income and expense statement. The fee hike proposed can’t be hiked more than the increase in Consumer Price Index as inflation can still be negative, while the CPI may be positive. Even considering CPI, this increase
can’t be more than 15% over previous fee, on a maximum side.
14. Optional Annual user fee structure also needs to follow the review with PTA and School Governing council and a need based increase based on income and expense statement.
15. Based on PTA’s positive acceptance, the Governing council, as mentioned above, should approach the district fee regulatory authority with all the accounts on income and expenditure based on which district fee regulatory authority should approve the hike. Once approved, this fee will remain applicable for 3 years and can’t be changed in any circumstances.
16. If PTA does not agree with the recommended level of hike (as the income and expense statement may not support the necessary hike), then the PTA can raise the complaint with the district-level fee regulatory committee in this context.
17. Aggrieved parents are also entitled to approach the fee regulatory committee, if they have any grievances pertaining to fees.
18. Time-table: The Governing councils should approach the fee regulatory authority by September and a decision will be taken by the authority by December every year. The hiked fee will come into force during the next academic year. For an example, the Governing councils should approach the district fee regulatory authority by September 2009 and a decision should be taken by the district fee regulatory authority by December 2009. The hiked fee will come into force during the next academic year April 2010 till March 2011 and will remain applicable till March 2013. In Sept 2012, the School Governing Council can start the process again, if a hike is needed.
19. Enforcement: In case of district fee regulatory committee finds any anomaly in implementing these suggestions, the affiliation of school can be terminated. In case of CBSE/ IGCSE affiliated school, the NOC issued by District Education department can be withheld.
20. Applicability of these recommendations in current year’s context: The expert panel recommended that the fee prescribed for the last academic year (2008-09) would stand good for this year (2009-10). All private schools should roll back the hiked fee for this year. In case parents have already paid the hiked fee, the extra amount will have to be adjusted in the coming academic year.
21. General: Schools will have do away with names such as “concept schools”, “techno schools” etc. They should be named as primary, upper primary, high schools and public schools.
All these recommendations are in tune with the AP Regulation of Education and Prohibition of Capitation Fee Act 1983. If the government accepts the recommendations which are based on Section 15 read with Section 37 of the AP Educational Institutions Regulation of Admission and Prohibition of Capitation Fee, 1983, the private schools will have to implement it.
http://dpssecunderabad.blogspot.com/2009/07/understanding-of-fee-regulatory.html

2009-07-10T23:22:00.000-07:00

Parents see hope in DM's Decision

Relief to parents

2009-07-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

Protest Against School Apathy leads to ordeal

Students to observe black day on July 9
DPS waives late fee charges

Time to act now

2009-07-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

LUCKNOW: If you feel that the fees charged by the school your child studies in is too much, then it's time to react. The fees-fixation and fees
regulation committees are finally in place. Orders to this effect were circulated to all relevant authorities on Tuesday. But it is here that the role of parents becomes very important. "The committee will lie defunct till parents come forward and file a complaint against schools charging too much in the name of fees," said a senior officer in the education department.

The committee would be headed by district magistrate while district inspector of schools would work as the member secretary. District chief development officer, senior treasury officer and principal of a government inter college in the city would be a permanent member of the said committee. The committee may nominate parents of children studying in the school (maximum two) as special members.

All schools affiliated either to Central Board Of Secondary Education (CBSE) or Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) and being run by a private management come under the purview of these regulations. English or Hindi medium schools affiliated to UP board being run by a private management will also be government by the regulations. The only exceptions are schools or inter colleges duly declared as `minority' by the state government.

The issue caught government attention when parents in various cities resorted to streets in protest against fee hike in the schools their children studied in. Thereafter, a committee was constituted by the state government to probe why were parents angry. Headed by director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Veena Kumari Meena, the committee found that parents were right.

The committee report summed up that a large number of private schools in UP had raised fees by 25-55% in the name of giving salaries to the teachers in accordance with the sixth pay commission recommendations. This when the schools had promised to keep education affordable. The committee found that large amounts were collected as fees and then diverted to heads like surplus or capital funds -- meant for institutional development. The committee was, however, sure that the money was being used for purposes other than this.

Besides this, the committee was able to establish that a large number of school authorities were not able to reason the fees collected against various heads including tuition fees. Recommending action against private schools which increased fees in an unauthorised manner, the committee suggested constitution of a district level body to finalise the fee structure in private schools. It, however, said that private schools and parents must have representation in these committees. The committee also advocated regular audits of the school accounts by a qualified charted accountant.

Approving the suggestions made by the committees, the state education department formed a set of guidelines for finalising the fee structure of schools. Authorities said that the guidelines and committees are effective from the current academic session.
1 Jul 2009, 0353 hrs IST, Shailvee Sharda, TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Lucknow/Time-to-act-now/articleshow/4722303.cms

Parents of DPS students protest fee hike

2009-07-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

VADODARA: Around 150 parents of Delhi Public School (DPS) students assembled outside the school premises here on Wednesday to agitate against
management's decision to hike school fees. The management has proposed the fee hike to implement the suggestions of the Sixth Pay Commission.

Parents allege the school management has increased school fees by 27 per cent from the coming academic year without consulting them. DPS Parents Association (DPSPA) had earlier requested the school management to revert the fee hike.

"In the current economic scenario, it is difficult for parents to pay such high fees. The school management increased the fees without informing us," said member of DPSPA.

The parent association has submitted a memorandum to chairman of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), District Education Office and chairman of Sixth Pay Commission highlighting its concerns.

Principal of DPS NK Sinha said, "We had informed about the fee hike in January and even advertised in newspapers. Almost 80 per cent of the parents have paid the fees. There are only a few parents who have a problem with the hike."

Sinha added, "The fee hike is in tandem with the decision taken by Delhi Government and implemented by all schools working under the aegis of DPS Society to meet the salary of the employees as per the Sixth Pay Commission."
18 Mar 2009, 2210 hrs IST, TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Parents-of-DPS-students-protest-fee-hike/articleshow/4283779.cms

Schools asked to roll back fee hike

2009-07-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

ALLAHABAD: Members of Guardians' Ekta Samiti on Tuesday carried a unique campaign in city schools. The samiti members went to various schools and
inquired about details like number of students studying in them, fee charged, sorts of medical services available and the amount being spent on electricity, water supply, etc.

The convenor of samiti, Vijay Gupta said that since school authorities refused to answer their queries they pasted them on information boxes. After carrying out the day-long exercise, the samiti members later handed over a memorandum to district magistrate in the same regard.

Gupta said schools were charging arbitrary fees and were not in mood to answer the queries of guardians and parents. He added that district administration, too, is not taking note of the problem. He demanded that non-recognised schools should be immediately closed. Meanwhile, samiti members said the agitation would be continued till schools roll back the fee hike.
28 Apr 2009, 2250 hrs IST, TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Allahabad/Schools-asked-to-roll-back-fee-hike/articleshow/4460276.cms

Parents consent to fee hike must: Administration

2009-07-07T08:42:00.000-07:00

VARANASI: Forcing the parents and guardians of students to follow the decision of fee hike up to 30 per cent may prove dear to private schools as
the local administration is not in a mood to allow a hike of more than 10 per cent.

District inspector of schools Vijay Shankar Mishra on Thursday made it clear that the schools that have made a hike in fee structure up to 30 per cent would have to convene meetings with the parents and guardians to take them into confidence before implementing the decision. Mishra made it clear that no school would be allowed to make a hike of more than 10 per cent. And, for that the school authorities would have to come up with proper reason.

He said there were 57 private schools affiliated to CBSC and ICSE. He said he had held three rounds of meeting in which 40 schools had been covered. He said a majority of the schools had not made a hike in their fee structure, but some of them had increased the fee up to 30 per cent. He said the schools had been asked to hold meetings with the guardians immediately after the opening of schools in the first week of July. He also informed that schools would be allowed to implement their decisions only after taking parents in confidence.

Mishra said the administration would also evaluate the reasons given by the schools for their decision to raise the fee. He said the salary structure of the school staff and expanses on development and other facilities would also be covered in the exercise.
25 Jun 2009, 2235 hrs IST, TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Varanasi/Parents-consent-to-fee-hike-must-Administration/articleshow/4702265.cms

Creating a blog against fee hike

2009-07-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

KANPUR: Parents have now turned towards technology to protest against the fee hike by private schools. Distressed over the government inaction in
the matter, the Indian Parents Welfare Association (IPWA) has started a blog to in this regard.

In the first kind of its initiative in the city or even in the state (as claimed by one who created it), the blog carries information associated with the fee hike. Collection of all the news items featuring the protests and demonstrations of the parents forms part of blog. Created a month back, the blog has been flooded with the reactions of the parents, who have been exploited by the schools in the name of fees and the angst against government inaction.

"It's recession and every one is getting affected by it in some form or other. Schools have added to the woes of the middle class by exorbitantly increasing the fees. And they have kept doing this every year in the garb of building fund besides normal hike in the fee structure," reads a comment of a parent on the blog.

"Despite the `mindless' increase in school fees, the government has maintained a silence. Even as schools question the affordability of the parents and ask us to shift our wards to government schools, this very statement creates many questions," said Sanjeev Verma, who has created the blog.

He said, "Though there would be audits to schools' books of account, does any one in the government look into the details and number of times the hikes are carried out during the year and also in addition to school fees how much other additional expenses/charges are levied?"

The blog, he says, invites all the parents of the city who feel the pinch of the fee hike and mark protest through comments and reviews, forcing the government to do something about it. It enables the parents to go through any of the government order or the Court order passed regard the fee hike.

Additionally, there is a also a section that gives details about the increase in fees of the schools and their notices sent to the parents. "The blog has proved to be a huge success, as dozens of comments get added to it daily, providing solace to the parents that they aren't alone in this campaign," says Honey Rastogi, a regular visitor of the blog.
20 Jun 2009, 2223 hrs IST, TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4681314.cms

Parents fear backlash as schools re-open

2009-07-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

KANPUR: The anti-fee hike campaign, started by the parents of the city three months ago, has become a cause for concern for students. With the
summer break coming to an end, the students and their guardians are apprehensive of an adverse fallout of the protests by the parents in the past.

In the absence of any concrete decision by the administration in favour of the parents, the jittery parents fear for their wards to be troubled by the school authorities. In a meeting, members of Indian Parents Welfare Association (IPWA) decided to meet the principals of various schools in the coming week.

"As such, few of the parents have already been threatened by some of the schools' management to deposit the fees or else face expulsion. We do not want that others also face the similar consequence. More so, until now no grievance redressal committee has been constituted following which our students may face harassment at the hands of school authorities," said general secretary of IPWA, Umang Agarwal.

Meanwhile, members of Kanpur Abhibhavak Sangh had demanded the district magistrate on Saturday to constitute a committee to ensure that the schools do not enhance the fee in disproportionate manner.

28 Jun 2009, 2301 hrs IST, TNN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kanpur/Parents-fear-backlash-as-schools-re-open/articleshow/4713239.cms

The price we pay for schools..............

2009-07-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

Price controls are impeding private education, an unintended effect of the Sixth Pay Commission

Few people link the government’s Sixth Pay Commission with the price of private school education. But on reading the fine print, both central board accreditation and the state government’s no-objection certificates for private schools require “pay parity” with government schoolteachers. As a result, many private schools have received government notices to implement this Sixth Pay Commission parity with retrospective effect from 1 January 2006. Many complied and raised fees by 25-60%.

This raise became the breaking point in a simmering confrontation between parents and schools: 15 parents associations in New Delhi, Ludhiana, Kanpur, Indore, Allahabad and Mumbai held street protests and filed court cases asking for fee rollbacks and controls. Public interest litigation filed in the Allahabad high court said, “In Greater Noida there is only one government school. Parents do not have any option except to send their wards to unaided private schools. The petitioners’ grievance is that recognized private, unaided schools in Uttar Pradesh are indulging in the large-scale commercialization of education, which is against public interest. This commercialization has reached an alarming situation because of the failure of the government to perform its statutory function. The fee hike and arrears will break the backbone of parents, especially in the present recessionary period and this association has been formed to fight the arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional acts of unaided private schools.”
Courts have now begun to respond. In late March, the Delhi high court called the decision by private city schools to hike fees “highly objectionable”, and issued a notice to the government last month to examine whether the institutions were following the “mandatory provisions of law”.
The debate over the price of education is particularly complicated in India because of poverty and inequality of opportunity. While it is easy to take sides, any debate must remember Albert Einstein’s warning to make things as simple as possible but not simpler.Regulating fees at private schools only moves payments underground and creates other new fees

Our school system has problems of capacity (there aren’t enough schools), outcomes (students drop out because of poor value for money or time, output is not work-ready), and inclusiveness (many children don’t have access to quality education). Many parents (poor or rich) choose private schools over government ones: The latter have the same instructor teaching multiple grades, no separate toilets for girls, no English teaching, poor resources, and 35% of the teachers don’t show up for work. This despite government teachers being paid better (the new minimum salary for a government teacher and peon in Uttar Pradesh is Rs18,000 and Rs11,500 per month, respectively) and better qualified than most private school teachers.

The case for imposing price controls on private schools is weak because they are not natural monopolies; most do not use government land, or enjoy subsidies. To put this in the perspective of other government interventions, even the highly distortionary drug price control applies to only 35% of medicines— while price-controlled government schools already account for 75% of schoolchildren. But the “public interest” alibi already breeds meddling: This regulatory cholesterol has led to an adverse selection of education entrepreneurs—the enterprise attracts land mafia, politicians and criminals—creating bad private schools.

Moreover, the government’s inability to perform its role with public sector schools will not go away by raising fingers at the private sector. Many “edupreneurs” today relate to actor Shah Rukh Khan’s quip to Sunil Gavaskar’s advice for the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket team— “Buy your own team”, creating unbridled expansion in private schools.

Still, government schools in Mumbai spend about Rs2,500 per student per month—more than the fees of 90% of private schools. Price controls only choke the massive private school expansion that is anyway trying to compensate for state failure.
The current incorporation structure for private schools as a trust is also dysfunctional. Sunshine is the best disinfectant: Schools must be allowed to incorporate as companies that pay tax and have shareholders. Allowing for-profit schools seems counter-intuitive, but competition under a strong regulatory framework has lowered costs and increased quality in other sectors. I agree schools are different because of the limited bargaining power of parents (would you lead a sustained fight with your child’s school about a fee hike that would pay the teacher more?). But our school system is still over-regulated.

Further, regulating private fees only moves payments underground, creates new fees (building, library, summer camp, activity, medical, sport and computer, etc.), sabotages excellence and accelerates penetration of international accreditation boards such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) and the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE). For-profit schools must be allowed; in fact, their taxes should be earmarked towards improving government schools.

Government pay parity for private schools must be removed. We must mercilessly measure and publicize outcomes. But, more fundamentally, we must acknowledge that price controls kill expansion. And India needs its school capacity to explode because, in the absence of this capacity, the most expensive school for a child is no school.

Regulating fees at private schools only moves payments underground and creates other new fees.

http://www.livemint.com/2009/06/15225315/The-price-we-pay-for-schools.html
Manish Sabharwal is chairman, TeamLease Services

G.O. for amendment in NOC to stop fees Hike

2009-07-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

School fee hike shocks parents

2009-07-01T11:24:00.001-07:00

Bangalore: Schools raise fees by up to 60 per cent in slowdown year, leaving parents shocked and angry

Bangalore's schools have hiked their fees by a staggering 20 to 60 per cent this year, leaving parents, already reeling under the slowdown, angry and agitated.

Some schools have doubled their tuition fees. Managements tell parents to expect a yearly hike of 10-15 per cent, but 40 and 60 per cent fee hikes are being seen as horribly insensitive in a year of pay and job cuts. At Deccan International School, parents protested the hike in fees for primary school students from Rs 25,000 to Rs 32,500. MiD DAY's persistent efforts to contact its management, over three days, met with no success.

Presidency School in R T Nagar has increased its monthly fee from Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,800.

Innisfree House School has announced a 32 per cent hike in term fees, paid once in four months, for primary school students. Children of class 5 have to now pay Rs 14,400 per term (paid once in four months) compared to Rs 10,900 last year. Again, its staff couldn't put us on to anyone who could explain the increase.

Delhi Public School has hiked the term fee (paid once in three months) for high school students from Rs 4,900 to Rs 6,150. Kumarans School was charging Rs 36,000 as a total fee inclusive of all expenses for children going from class 5 to 6. This year they are charging Rs 43,100 as tutuion fee, Rs 10,000 for bus and Rs 5,000 for books and uniform.

"That they increased fees at such a time is what makes it insensitive," said a Kumarans parent. National Public School has different fee structures at different branches. This year they have announced an 8 per cent hike in the annual fee. Admissions for a kindergarten class this year will set you back by a good Rs 65,000.

"Parents are afraid of job losses. It is not easy to pay higher fees this year," said Ramya K, whose two children study at National Public School.

Association take

"Schools can hike their fees by 10 to 15 per cent every year, and new schools can charge higher fees... But the ICSC and CBSC schools which have hiked their fees by more than 30 per cent this year should justify their reasons to their central board councils in Delhi," said Krishna Iyer president of Karnataka Association of Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools. The Karnataka education minister has promised to step in and help parents, but Krishna Iyer was sceptical the state government could do anything in the matter of fee
structures.

"Nevertheless, schools have to follow guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, which state that schools should keep in mind the economic status of parents when they increase their fees. Schools cannot flout this guideline," he said.

Fee hikes: How much, where?
>>Deccan International School: Rs 25,000 to Rs 32,500 (30%)
>>Presidency School tuition fee: Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,800. (30%)
>>Innisfree House School term fee: Rs 10,900 to Rs 14,400 (32%)
>>Delhi Public School term fee: Rs 4,900 to Rs 6,150 (25.5%)
>>Kumarans School: Rs 36,000 (all inclusive) class 5 to 6 last year.
This year, it is Rs 43,100 (tuition fee), Rs 10,000 (bus) and Rs 5,000 (books and uniform). (61%)

Minister seeks info
Primary and secondary education minister Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri said he would gather information before deciding what to do. "I will find out which schools have hiked their fees. I have to see whether our department has received any complaints. Once I have all the details, I can initiate action," he told MiD DAY.

What is the legal position on fee hikes?
M F Saldanha, former high court judge, said, "There is a substantial increase, which is not right. A reasonable increase is always permissible."

He said parents would find it difficult to pay high fees in a slowdown year.

He said the government had the authority to step in and question educational institutions. "I remember, few years ago in Mumbai, private schools went to court when parents objected to a fee increase. The court gave a judgment that the schools had the right to charge as they pleased, but I was against that judgment," he told MiD DAY.
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/apr/220409-School-fees-60-percent-hike-parents-angry-Bangalore-news.htm