FEE ISSUE HOTS UP IN DELHI

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE PARENTS ASSOCIATION, DELHI - 

DEBATING SCHOOL FEE

When Government can run its schools with a particular amount of expenditure, we see no reason as to why an unaided private school charge fee from the fee-paying parents more than the amount of expenditure per child spent by the Government on its students. If any unaided school still claims higher amount of fee, such school has to satisfy the Directorate of Education on the basis of its financial records.

The Government of NCT of Delhi, Directorate of Education by its circular dated 21.03.2012 has approved an amount up to Rs.1190/- as expenditure per-child per month on elementary education for re-imbursement to private unaided schools during session 2011-12 in respect of students admitted from economically weaker section and disadvantaged groups. It has also been decided that no re-imbursement shall be made to schools, which have been allotted land by Government at concessional rates to the extent, schools are under obligation to admit students from weaker section as per terms and conditions of the Lease/ Land allotment Letter.

It is interesting to note that the said amount of Rs. 1190/- is based on the fact that the Government of Delhi in the academic year 2011-2012 has spent Rs.1190/- per child per month on the elementary education of the students studying in their own schools. We all know that the Government of Delhi, Directorate of Education has a huge physical and academic infrastructure. All the teaching and non-teaching staffs are paid Pay and Emoluments as per the Recommendations of the Central Pay Commission. We also know that lot of financial wastage takes place in the Government management system. Keeping all these facts in to considerations, it is submitted that the expenditure figure of Rs. 1190/- per child per month can be safely taken as an ideal figure also for the purpose of payment of school Fee per child in unaided private schools by the Fee-paying parents.

The issue that required to be highlighted is that if the Government can run its school with an expenditure of Rs.1190/- per child per month, what is the justification for the unaided private schools to not to be able to run their schools with the same amount of expenditure. It is submitted that unaided private schools should not ask the Fee paying parents to pay school fee more than what is spent by the Government on its students studying in its own schools in a particular State. We are of a strong view that the demand of a fee amount from the Fee- paying students more than that spent by the Government on its own students is totally unjustified. However, if any unaided private school finds that the amount of Rs.1190/- is less than what is actually required from the fee paying students, then they should approach the government and satisfy the Government based upon the audit of their annual financial accounts, that the school is indeed incurring an expenditure more than the amount specified by the Government in its own schools annually and therefore, eligible to charge higher fee based upon the expenditure incurred.

It may be kept in mind that in view of the Judgment of Punjab and Haryana High Court in the matter of CWP 17752/2005 titled Navdeep Kaur Gill & others v/.s Government of Punjab it was held that the Fee structure should be based upon the expenditure on the minimum infrastructure required for the recognition of the institute. In case, the Educational Society wishes to provide extra facilities it may do so from its own resources. This way there will not be extra burden on the parents of the students. It is also pertinent to mention here that now-a- days most of the schools are getting in to a sort of rat race to make their Schools Air Conditioned and charging exorbitant Fee from the parents. In its report, the Raghvan committee has expressed their strong opinion against the making schools with Five Star Facilities. They have recommended that such five star culture will not create conducive atmosphere for the educational purpose and it will create divide among the section of the society.

Therefore it is stressed that the amount so decided by the government sufficient for the re-imbursement is also sufficient for the schools to charge from the Fee paying students.

These are the views that the All India Parents Association believes in.

For any suggestion or feed back please write back to isgambhir@gmail.com

Ashok Agarwal, Advocate

National President, All India Parents Association

M-09811101923

WHEN CONSENT IS OBTAINED UNDER THREAT OR COERCION, IT IS RAPE

The first loophole that the schools obtained in the matter of Fee Determination in Tamil Nadu Schools was by the Committee’s relaxation that the determined fees will not include fees for any other extracurricular activities, transport, books…etc.  This provision, the school managements made maximum (mis) use of by collecting whatever they felt like, terming them as fees for extra-curricular, smart class, books, etc.

The Fee Determination committee under Justice S.R.Singaravelan has consistently held in the case of several cases that extracurricular activities cannot be compulsory and hence is only optional.  Schools are not to compel parents to accept all their extracurricular activities.  

The District Collector of Coimbatore also has very clearly stated in the minuted meeting conducted on 10.3.2012 with the representatives of the Parents Association as well as the managements of the schools in Coimbatore that extra fees than determined by the Committee should not be collected and if any fees is levied towards any extracurricular activities, it should not be compulsory.

Now, it is reported that various schools are adopting various dirty methods, including threatening the parents that  their children will be failed or asking parents to take their wards out of the schools, if they are not prepared to pay the fees determined by the school in violation of the committee’s decision (read to accept the so called extracurricular activities).

Forcibly getting consent does not make it consensual and hence would qualify to be termed as ‘RAPE’.

We hope the protectors of law will look at it appropriately taking into consideration the safety of young children who are put to test.

RTE vs APARTHEID MIND SET

We had anticipated that with the Government enacting a law on the Right to Education, implementation of the Right to Education enshrined in the Constitution will get implemented. When the enactment came, of course, we were disappointed that it did not fulfill the ‘free and compulsory education for all children from the age of 6 to 14’.  It attempted only to cover 25% from the economically weak. (Pl see our views in earlier pages on this)  The mechanism that would determine the economic weakness also was subject to various doubts.  Yet, since the journey of even a thousand miles has to start only with the first step, this was looked upon by us as a welcome move.

But the private school managements saw red.  They said that the RTE cannot be implemented.  If it is implemented, the fee paying parents will have to take the burden of the free education also, they threatened.  This argument itself raises several questions.  Chiefly, when these educational institutions are registered as Trusts for charitable/educational purposes, when they profess that they are in the field of education as a ‘service’ to the society, should not they themselves have adopted some mechanism whereby some children in each institution gets free education?  Though they themselves failed to do so, at least when the Parliament enacted a law requiring them do so, they were expected to do so ‘graciously’.

The managements wanted to exercise their legal right and went to court on the issue.  Of late, we have seen that on various legislations, the school managements have been going to the Courts at the cost of, of course the money collected from the parents.  Whether in the case against fixation of fees or implementation of Uniform Syllabus, in Tamil Nadu, they failed before the highest judicial forum of the land.  In the case of RTE also therefore there was little wonder that they went to court.

But when the Hon’ble Supreme Court, in a judgment written by the Chief Justice himself upheld the RTE and directed the schools to start following it from this year itself (2012-13) the school managements were expected to take things seriously and start the process of admissions as per the RTE Act and the instructions of the Government in this regard.

But, we hear from media reports that the managements are yet to get satisfied.  They want to exercise their right of going for a review.  This, in our opinion, taking into consideration the bahaviour of the managements in the previous cases, can be seen only as an attempt to postpone the implementation of the scheme from this year itself.  In the first place, they should not have filled up the vacancies before the verdict was out.  Any admission without adhering to the provisions of the RTE, when there was no stay by any Court against its provisions is itself failure to abide by the law.  Hence, we hope that now the Government at the Center and at the State will issue strict instructions that the provisions have to be implemented immediately, in the absence of any stay.

No quarrels over the managements using their right, though as pointed earlier, it is at the expense of the hard earned money collected from the parents, but what is disturbing is their attitude and posers.

Their repeated argument that when there is a government school in the vicinity, the children under RTE cannot be admitted into private schools, is like saying that certain people shall not board a private bus if government busses are plying in the same route.  This attitude is nothing else but open and defiant proclamation of an attitude of ‘apartheid’.  This attitude will also threaten the society from discrimination of these children within the campus. 

When these institutions came and sought the recognition of the government for running schools in the name of assisting the government/society in the field of imparting of education, now to talk as if they are a parallel government, and dodging implementation of an enactment even after the apex court has held it up, is nothing short of exhibition of defiance, rebellion and greed.

We are reminded of the poem of Rabindranath Tagore in the ‘Gitanjali’:

When it was day they came into my house and said, `We shall only take the smallest room here.' 

They said, `We shall help you in the worship of your God and humbly accept only our own share in his grace'; and then they took their seat in a corner and they sat quiet and meek. 

But in the darkness of night I find they break into my sacred shrine, strong and turbulent, and snatch with unholy greed the offerings from God's altar.

High time, the real owner of the house wakes up. 

One small step in that direction will be to bring into these Trusts into the ambit of the Right to Information Act, because, it is public money which is being used against public interest.

GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS, NAXALISM AND PRIVATISATION OF EDUCATION…

A controversial statement is reported to have been made by a prominent Scoio-Religious figure in India, that since Government schools are breeding grounds for Naxalism, school education should be privatized. 

 

Almost all National dailies have carried this report today (22.3.12)

 

We attempt to look at this statement in an unbiased way. 

 

We do not know if the person was quoted out of context or whether he meant a particular area alone and whether it was based on any statistics. 

But, at the outset, the theory appears to militate against reason and facts.  Most of the public figures in various walks of life are products of Government Schooling. 

 

Of course, the Times of India (Coimbatore Edition dated 22.3.12) carries another interesting report based on a study of the use of funds in Government schools.  It says that out of the funds allotted from the Sarva Siksha Abhyan Scheme, very little is actually going to the benefit of the students and that almost 90% goes to benefit only the teachers or the management.  What benefits the teachers at least would percolate to the students, one would wish.  But the report says that most of the expenditure is made in the name of maintenance like white-wash. 

 

Now, this report would appear to support the call for privation of school education.

 

But the actual fact remains, that most of the private schools are also found to be indulging in such misutilisation of funds.  Only, because they are run in the name of Trusts and not accountable to public under the RTI, the quantum of misuse could not come out in the open.  What is in the interest of the institution is decided only by the hand-full of individuals who are the ‘Trustees’.

 

Now, coming to the aspect of rebellion and terrorism, as Naxalism is related with, if someone says that education in Government schools makes pupil capable of indulging in the same, but the private institutions will not allow such tendencies to develop, it can only mean that private education is capable of making its products oblivious of the inequalities in the society and incapacitates them from reacting to it or attempting to change it.  While there is no second opinion that terrorism of any sort is not acceptable in a civil society, to ignore the cause while treating the symptom will hardly help in solving the problem.

 

The root of the problem is inequality in society and, a section however tiny it may be, proclaiming that they do not believe in the ‘Rule of Law’ or the institutions of the State to find a remedy.

 

To advise abandonment of the basic social requirement of education by the Government, will then, amount to abdication of powers, thereby avoiding meeting out the fundamental right to equality and right against exploitation. 

 

Such a step will only lead to further deterioration of the situation, not to contain it.

 

Hence, let us hope that the entire episode had come out of some mis-understanding.

 

THE SCHOOLS KEEP THEIR WORD-BUT HOW?

Some management representatives had earlier threatened to call in the police and register 'tress-pass' complaint against Parents, who will dare to question them in the school campus.  The first instance has already happened at Chinmaya Vidhyalaya, Vadavalli, today (14.3.2012) morning.  The school had compelled 5 parents of students of 11th standard to pay up the fees arbitrarily and exorbitantly fixed by the school.  Otherwise they were threatened that the children will not be allowed to take the 11th exams scheduled to begin today.  When the representatives of the SWAP of that school went to meet the Principal, the school insisted on the payment and issued the same threat.  When the representatives told the school authorities of the directive of the District Collector in the matter, they are reported to have stated that the District Collector had in fact asked them to collect fees as they deemed fit.  The police was summoned and action was sought to be taken against the parents.  On being contacted, we have advised them to send the children for the exam and if they are not allowed to take the exams, then we will take action on the same.  We can imagine what a respect the children will have for such institutions which harass them even at the eleventh hour before final exams!

SWAP representatives of all schools are hereby advised to desist discussing the issues with the managements since they have shown their real colours.  Let us take it up legally with concerned authorities.  

Please keep us and the PRESS informed about any violations to rights of Children particularly.

WHY WE DIFFER

The various reactions that have emanated from the managements of the schools, through the press, utterings to parents or parent bodies in schools, or during the just concluded talks with the District Collector have underlined the main points of differences between the managements and the Parent Bodies/educationalists.  Though some of the arguments were made during the discussions before the District Collector, we did not engage in exhaustive replies or to counter each and every point, due to paucity of time as well as not to allow the proceeding to go waste by falling into the trap of arguments and counter arguments.  However, since most of these arguments have been made by them in the media and to parents/children in schools also, for enabling the members to have a proper assessment, we are giving their points in block letters and the actual position as seen by us in italics below each:

Children are not harassed or put to any trauma on the fees issue.   To state that the schools are doing it is a motivated false allegation:

The facts are known to all the parents whose children have been harassed, singled out or discriminated against in one way or other on this issue.  Hence, we need not explain the lie in the argument.  At best a school could speak for itself, not in common on this issue.  For that matter, even where specific instances have been reported, the schools have been denying the same on record but perpetuating it in practice.   

Asking children to pay up is an age old practice and cannot be complained against. 

Practices have to change with change in times and as per the law of the land.  It used to be an age old practice to cane children or even bang their heads.  Not any more.  Children also have become more sensitive.  Further, using teachers to speak to children on issues of fees would only denigrate the stature of the teachers in the minds of the children, who are taught to worship teachers for their self-less service.

When the Corporation threatens to disconnect water supply due to arrears of tax, it is not taken as harassment.  Then why in the case of school fees it should be treated as harassment.

Corporation can threaten to disconnect water supply only against arrears of a legal fees.  Not something above the prescribed fees.  It can be done only with proper notice and as per law.  The so called threat also cannot be delivered on the children, instead of the head of a family.  Threatening for fees than prescribed by law is like threatening to withdraw a fundamental right for not paying a bribe.

Actually, no school is running on profit.  We find it difficult to run the affairs with the fixed fees.

Let them have the guts to prove this by putting their accounts before the parents.  In those cases where we have details, it is not a fact. The increasing growth of groups of institutions also does not support this argument.

The land and building belongs to us.  If we want, we can build flats instead of running schools.  If we are not allowed to conduct our business as per our convenience, we will close down the schools.  Government cannot dictate to us.

Enjoyment of various concessions by these schools is based on the fact that most of the trusts are registered as charitable trusts for a defined and definite purpose.  It is not a private property.  Even in private property, all land belongs to the State and ownership is subject to Constitutional guarantees as well as restrictions. In the case of Trusts, the responsibility of the Trustee to the property of the trust is akin to that of a Public Servant to Government property.  The trusts cannot expect parents to pay returns on the capital gained by them through donations given by the parents themselves or by the society.  The donations were given for the particular cause and not for doing business like building flats and selling them.  Recognition has been granted to them for running a school only as per their own application for recognition.  To threaten the Government against implementing a law is ___??????.

If parents do not want our school they can put their wards in any other school.

Very old argument.! Does not hold good any more due to enactment of Fee determination Act.  Now the question is whether the product on which an MRP has been legally determined will be allowed to be sold at a higher price.

If parents do not want to avail of the facilities and extra facilities provided by us, they can put their children in Government schools.

This argument also is a worn out one in the light of the enactment of the RTE Act where even the Government has made it mandatory that at least 25% should be admitted into private schools, from the deprived sections of the society. 

Further, the District Collector categorically stated in the meeting on 10.3.12 that extra-curricular activities cannot be imposed on every one and can be only optional. 

In the case of extra- curricular activities and facilities, it should be restricted to out of school timings and not during the approved school time.

During the meeting on 10.3.12 itself, we have pointed out that the Fees has determined only after considering the expenses and facilities in each school and therefore the excuse of facilities cannot be an argument to collect higher fees than that is determined.

Parents are not bothered about the necessity to pay the teachers salary.

Parents have never objected to paying the staff (whether teaching or non-teaching) a decent salary.  In fact in the candle light meeting held on 3.3.12 in memory of Late Teacher Uma Maheswari and Late Student Anooj, we have passed a resolution that when the Government goes through the expenditure statement of the schools at the time of fixing fees, they should also look into the salary paid to teachers based on minimum wages and other relevant acts.  On the contrary, is widely stated, that in many institutions, the actual payments made are far less than what is shown on records (Many teachers are also Parents).  To stem such tendencies and exploitation, we prefer to have a properly-democratically constituted PTA. But, for that what do they say?  See below:

We do not want to form PTA and we cannot run the school as per their wishes.

When even a country as complex and big as India could be run democratically, how come schools run by Trusts are an exception?  How do managements think that parents of children of the school and teachers giving their entire life for the benefit of the institution will advice adversely - unless of course the interests of the institution are not the same as the that of the individuals managing the institutions - what blatant methods of exposing themselves!

Do these schools not see the danger in the situation even after the violent incidents that took away the life of a teacher in Chennai and that of a student at Udumelpet and realize that a communication gap between the parent community and teaching community is detrimental to the campus atmosphere in schools?

Last but not the least, the arrogant manner exhibited during the meeting before the District Collector by some representatives of the Management made us wonder thus:  If such behaviour could be exhibited before authorities, how they will be behaving to the staff who are totally at their mercy and if this is their attitude to Parents from whom they are collecting fees, how they will be expected to behave with innocent children inside the campus? 

Can those who are not able to respect the roots, be reasonably be expected to worship the fruits alone?

A HISTORIC EVENT

The District of Coimbatore has once again set an example for the rest of the state in terms of dealing with the issues relating to private schools. We are thankful to the District Collector, Shri. M. Karunakaran and the District Administration for enabling this District to once again achieve a distinction of setting an example.

          Last time, it was from Coimbatore that the flame of resistance to indiscriminate fee hike by private schools spread across the state in 2009.  The protests by parents –from the middle class who otherwise would not have taken the strain to take to the streets – made the Government bring in legislation to determine fees in private schools.

          With the private schools giving scant regard to the fees determined as per the said law – which to their chagrin was upheld by the Supreme Court – and keep demanding fees as per their own sweet will and wish, parents have once again been forced to seek the intervention of the Government to ensure that the ‘Rule of Law’ in this matter, does prevail.

          On being petitioned by the COC Of SWAP, Cbe on 13.2.2012, the District Collector, Coimbatore had promised to call for a triparte talks.

          He kept his word by calling the representatives of the Parent Bodies, the Managements of the schools, who had themselves made subsequent petitions and held discussions in the presence of the Officers of the Educational Departement, Police, Revenue and the Corporation. 

          In brief the District Collector has given the following directions:

• Parents may represent their grievances regarding private school fees and related subjects, to the Chief Educational Officer, Coimbatore, who as the head of a five member committee in the District will give his findings on the complaint within 30 days to the District Collector, with a copy to the complainant.  Parents need not therefore hold any more demonstrations before the schools for getting their grievances redressed.
• Schools shall not compel parents to pay donations.  They shall not collect any fees over and above the fees determined by the committee.  If they have grievance regarding the determined amount, they may get it revised through legal means and until then they shall not collect more than that is determined.
• Schools shall not make extra-curricular activities compulsory.
• If the complaints against any of the above issues are found true, severe action will be taken against the schools which may affect their recognition also.

The parent bodies have heaved a sigh of relief.  The directions have been encouraging.  Reporters from the press have asked us immediately after the said meeting as to whether we think that this meeting will make any effect on the scenario.  We have stated that since many of the managements have been barging about ‘nobody can do anything to us’, with this categorical statement by the head of the District Administration, we feel that they will understand the signal that the Government is with the people and therefore there will be a difference in the attitude of the School Managements.