Sunday, October 30, 2011

A challenge thrown to the Federation of Private School managements


     In response to the issues raised by this forum, it appears that School Managements had stated that we are generalizing issues in respect of non functioning of PTA in many of the schools and wherever it is said to be functioning, it is run democratically.  (Report in The Hindu dated 31.10.11)
          In this regard, we would like to challenge the Managements to prove their statement by producing a bye-law of PTA in any of the private schools in this city where the PTA is formed and run democratically. Democratic standards include: specific provisions for filing of nominations, voting and secret ballot. Such a body should have access to the accounts of the schools based on which periodic decisions are taken in minuted meetings.  If on cross checking with the parents of such a school it is found that it is true, we will be very glad to carry the name of that school on this blog in appreciation of their truthfulness. And we will recommend to other schools that this example should be followed. Failure to take this challenge will mean acknowledgement of our statement as factually correct.
          The education department which is supposed to look into this should enforce this fundamental requirement. 
Today’s Deccan Chronicle carries a story highlighting how old age homes take the inmates for a ride without producing accounts, but keeping on demanding money from them even when there is a surplus. These are all instances of how the Constitutional guarantee against exploitation is not being honoured in practice. If a society fails to respond to such abject corruption, it is bound to decay.  Circuitous mechanisms for redressal would either lead to furtherance of the sense of despondency and resignation or lead to violent reaction, neither of which will be in social interest.
          Today’s The New Indian Express also carries the anguish felt by anti-corruption movement against corruption in various strata of the society, including violation of building and safety norms by educational institutions who have also been cited as evading taxes by terming themselves as charitable institutions. (Ref: Letter of Shri. N.K.Velu, Secretary of Anti-Corruption Movement, Coimbatore)
          The society has its moorings in the educational system.  Unless corruption is rooted out there, the society cannot look forward to a great future.

An enterprising endeavour – by an individual, where state fumbles.

The Times of India (Coimbatore Edition dated 30.10.11) reports that Azim Premji is to set up two free schools in every district and 1300 schools are to be set up by the year 2025. 

As mentioned earlier in this blog, free and compulsory education upto the age of 14 was enshrined as a fundamental right in the Constitution in the year 2002.  Yet, even after a decade no serious moves are afoot to get it implemented.  Thus, by non-enforcement of this fundamental right, there is no material difference in the scenario from that of when the same was in the Directive Principles.  The Directive Principle (Article 45) itself had spelt out a time frame of 10 years from the implementation of the Constitution to make this an enforceable right.  It as a part of the Fundamental Right to life and liberty (Article 21) that the right to Education (Article 21A) is also enshrined.  That only points out to the umbilical link between the two.  Yet, the State is not yet prepared to implement it. 

It is pertinent to note that the same state machinery does not find it difficult to announce a slew of concessions on various occasions.  Freebees as incentives for votes have not yet been legally held as corrupt practices.  And there is no dearth of funds for such expenses. 

At a point of time, the Union Minister for Education Shri. Kapil Sibal went on to request the corporate sector to help the Government in fulfilling the Right to Education obligation, as a part of Corporate Social Responsibility.  But the same Government is now stated to be acceding to the demand of the Corporate sector that they should not be compelled to spend 2% of their net profit on philanthropic activities.  This report also is there in the same news paper.

Friday, October 28, 2011

This picture and that – [ article by mmr ]


         A clash between the personnel of a Theater and some people who went to see the Diwali release of a film at Coimbatore took its toll– on date one has died. 
There are and would be several versions – that the deceased did not have enough money to pay for the tickets, that there was a quarrel over the theatre allowing tickets to be sold in black market, that the deceased had questioned the theater personnel at the counter regarding exorbitant collection of money over and above the one stipulated in the tickets, etc,.  
          Already the District Collector of Coimbatore had initiated action against cinema halls collecting exorbitant fees.  The justification on the other side is that due to CD piracy, they are not able make both ends meet.  So naturally no questions would be tolerated, that too with a surging crowd and on the first day of the release of the film.
If any one feels that the real truth will be out at the end of the investigations, it would mean that he does not know the abc of corruption and the might of these theater houses.
This author himself was at the receiving end of the theater personnel running rough shod over the customers:
It was at a theater at Hosur and somewhere around 1992-93.  He had gone with his friends to view a film.  After obtaining the tickets when they all went into the theater, there were no seats available.  There was no reservation and hence it was on a first-come-first-served-baisis.  So when inside the hall there were no seats, the ticket boy at the entrance had to be approached.  He said the family of some ‘big’ Police personnel had suddenly come and hence seats became unavailable.  For us he said some folding chairs would be made available.  Not being interested to sit for 3 hours in folding chairs, the friends of this author went to enquire whether refund would be available.  At that time this author asked the ticket boy whether there was no stipulation as to the number of tickets that could be sold.  A slap on the face was the answer.  The friends came back hearing the sound of the slap.  They were furious.  All of them came out of the theater without even getting a refund.  They initially thought that these tickets would be an evidence for a complaint before the Police.  But on second thoughts, the idea was given up.  There was no witness in respect of the assault and when the entire episode revolved around a benefit extended by the theater wallahs to Police Officials family, what would come out of a complaint in the case?
In the same month a Tamil magazine ‘Thuglaq’ also reported of an assault by some Theater wallahs at Chennai.
It is not a secret that mafias run theater houses, petrol pumps, etc because without muscle power these establishments cannot be run.
Now, coming to the link…
These theater people also will say: it is a free market, if you want you come to see the film at the fee fixed by us, or you have the liberty not to come at all - we charge for the ‘facility’ provided by us - you have no right to quarrel or dictate to us.
Does this vein of argument sound similar…to that which is put out by private schools?  
‘Oh, what an uncharitable comparison against charitable educational institutions!’, will be the immediate reaction.  But see what the C&AG has got to say in Para 3.5.1 of the Audit Report on  Revenue Receipts of Tamil Nadu for the year ended 31 March 2010:  ‘Private educational institutions in Tamil Nadu have encroached Government lands to the extent of 170.38.8 hectares.’  This is in Tamil Nadu alone.  In respect of other states, it has to be exhaustively studied. But the CAG Report only once again leads us to the view that all Trusts should be brought under the Purview of the Right To Information Act, because all of them are handling public money. 
The Tamil Nadu Government legislated on the fees to be collected by Private Schools.  But the general feeling is that the enactment has become another piece of legislation operated by money power.  Otherwise a group of schools already collecting hefty fees, would not have been able to get away with a near 300% hike over what was fixed by the very same committee, but headed by a different Judge. 
As if that infliction is not enough, the schools invent and re-invent methods in a ‘smart’ way for levying fees in different names, for different purposes.  Complicating the most elementary thing like education and its commercialization defies the Fundamental Right under the Constitution: ‘free and compulsory education until the age of 14’.  
Now, does the picture of the theater in the state and that of the private schools look any different?
It is an irony that theatrics have come to rule a state claiming a ‘rationalistic heritage in politics’.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Lead kindly light - dispel darkness.


Ever since the Committee for determining fees in the Private Schools in Tamil Nadu revised the fees in appeal, under Justice Raviraja Pandian and a creamy layer schools were granted a hike of upto 300% of what was initially fixed by Justice Govindarajan, the Parents have been perplexed. 
 
The sudden exit of Justice Raviraja Pandian immediately after he announced the heavy hike, the hike being contrary to his own claim before the media that he had recommended a hike of (only) up to 30% and the method in which the hike was determined without giving an opportunity for the Parents of the respective schools to be heard during the proceedings, even where specifically requested for, etc, have served to give an impression to the Parents community that all was not well with the procedure adopted by the Committee.

Since the new Government had taken office only just at that time we waited for some moves from the Government to set right the anomalies.  Now that the Government has appointed a new Judge to head the Committee and the hearings have started, it is quite legitimately hoped that the committee will be transparent in giving out the details of how and why such a hefty hike was considered necessary and wherever the parents representatives were not heard, to take steps to rectify the mistake now and give a reasoned and reasonable decision.

Now that the local body polls are over, it is also expected that the Government would start streamlining school education with the interest of children in mind. 

Already the Government has announced a trimester system and that would reduce the book load of children.  However, it is for educationists to comment upon as to whether shortening the necessity to remember the subject even for one full year will do good or harm to the development of the children.  There is no dispute however regarding the reduction of the burden of books by making them into ‘All in One’ for each term.


The other issue is regarding the supply of books by the schools and collection of exorbitant fees against the same stating that it would not fall under the purview of the fees determination committee. 
Since the text books are issued by the Government itself, Private Schools should be prohibited from compelling Parents/students to buy books from the schools itself.  The demand of the private schools that they should be allowed to make their own purchase of text books should not be allowed since it becomes a means of fleecing of parents by them. It is noticed that the books and notebooks distributed by the schools (brought by them from open market) do not have a pre-printed MRP on them. They do not appear to come under the purview of sales tax purposes also. 
In spite of the fact that the Government has reduced the price on text books by supply of a set of text books within Rs. 300, strangely some schools have increased the book fees heavily compared to what they collected last year.  Hence, apart from reducing the load of books on students, the Government has to look into the load of the price of books on parents also.

The present Uniform Syllabus for Education is seen to have combined the syllabus of 12 years in the Matric Schools and spread them out for 10 years.  The reason appears to be that the Government schools do not have KG classes. This disparity could be settled only by either starting KG classes in Government schools or by abolishing them in Private schools.

The Government’s objective of making education available to all and as per the provisions of the Constitution (The Right to free and compulsory education) could be achieved only by making mobility between the private and public schools more feasible.  Towards that the following measures would be essential:
·        The hygiene and infrastructure in Government schools should be  brought on par with that of the Private schools, in respect of security, compound walls, toilet and drinking water facilities, lab and library facilities etc and with enough number of teaching and non-teaching staff.
·        The different streams of state board having been merged in respect of syllabus, the names also has to be made common for all schools, so that disparity in the minds of children would cease to exist.
·               In order to dispel any feeling of disparity among students of Private schools and Government schools, all facilities and schemes for school children should be made applicable uniformly for both private and Government school children.

In the interest of children, until complete integration takes place between private and public schools, the Government has to ensure the following steps:
Ø      As a measure of ensuring a proper campus atmosphere and to maintain cordiality and transparency in running of the affairs of the private schools, necessary amendments have to be brought into the Private Schools Recognition Act making it mandatory for every school to have a democratically elected Parent-Teachers’ Association [PTA] to get the school’s recognition renewed.
Ø      In order to settle any dispute/complaint by or on behalf of any student, a committee at District level headed by the District Collector and comprising of Officials of the Educational department and with representatives of Managements, Teachers and Parents should be constituted.

Only by bringing in light can darkness be dispelled. 
Therefore Lead Kindly Light.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Education and Public Health should be with State

History again and again teaches us that no class or clan or group of people can claim to be repository to all knowledge or epitomes of all virtue. If any one tries to propagate otherwise, either he is being foolish or wants others to be so.

The greatest of humans from Socrates to Ramana Maharshi maintained in speech and deed that they are lowly of the lowest and if they were part of the whole, so are all others too, the differences being only in the level of understanding.

Yet, again and again, as individuals or as groups or sects, we try to slap on our own backs, in the name of heritage, clan, cast, up-bringing, education or wealth. the most notorious claim being in the name of ones intellectual prows. The successful have deceived others and themselves alike. Those who fail have fallen to despair.

Such block headedness is the worst when it manifests in educationists or men of medicine. For, in the case of the former, young helpless minds are at the receiving end, while in the case of the later, it is the helpless and hapless patients, in distress or at the threshold of death who are the victims.

It is therefore very important that any sane society should put these activities in the hands of a collective body which will be above parochial feelings and identities.

In the available dispensation, only a democratically elected government is in such a position. Not that one who is elected is supreme. But he or she can also be negated the next time in the face of misbehaviour. There will atleast be a social check.

Thus, it is the duty of the Government to take over education and public health in its entirety. Any provisions for variations and choice could be within the domain of full state control and should not be left to the whims and fancies of any individual or groups, whatever may be their tall claims of charitable intentions.

This a fundamental requirement in a constitutional democracy.