‘Make Eng medium edu free, remove audit objection’

MADURAI: Alleging that the “audit objection” was a “threat” to them and that the internal auditing team of the Directorate of School Education (DSE)’s demand that they collect a fee from the students enrolled in the English medium at government schools was unfair, headmasters across the State appealed to the Principal Secretary of School Education to take a firm policy decision and make studying in the English medium free in government-run schools.

In 2013–14, the English medium section was started in many government schools. Currently, there are more than 80,000 students in the government schools in Tamil Nadu. Since opening an English medium section in all the government schools was mandated in 2014–15, most of the schools launched the section.
Until the last academic year, the School Education Department did not ask the headmasters of government schools to collect fees from the students in the English medium section.

In a sudden decision taken in May, based on the advice of the auditing team of the DSE, the government is said to have decided to collect a fee from these students. The auditing team, through their officials including the Regional Accounts Officer (Audit), has started urging the headmasters to pay the students’ fees for all the five years by collecting it from the students or paying from their own pockets.
Samy Sathiyamoorthy, State President, TN High and Higher Secondary Schools Headmasters’ Association, said that the headmasters were being forced to collect `200 from students in Classes 6, 7 and 8, and `250 from those in Classes 9 and 10. “Headmasters who are unable to collect the fee are being slapped with an audit objection which effectively means that they will not get their dues cleared after retirement,” he said.

Sathiyamoorthy also said added that  School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan had agreed to take a proper policy decision to make the English medium free, during a meeting with several teachers associations but that no steps had been taken yet.
S Karthikeyan, Financial Controller, DSE, said that the audit department was just following a GO passed in 2008 mandating collecting a fee from students in the English medium. “If the government passes an order making education free for them, we will abide by that,” he asserted.
Asked why his department had not followed the rule from 2013–14 itself, Karthikeyan said that the internal audit was not regular and was conducted once in two or three years.

Fees for all five years

The auditing team, through their officials including the Regional Accounts Officer, has started urging the headmasters to pay the students’ fees for all the five years by collecting it from the students or paying from their own pockets