School mgmts won’t collect admit cards

Rajkot: The ongoing row over capping of school fees is becoming a nightmare for parents of students appearing for the board exams, as officials of self-financed schools refused to collect admit cards from the district education officer’s office on Thursday.
These admit cards have to be distributed to students before March 12 when the board (X and XII class) exams begin. Nearly 1 lakh students from 450 self-financed schools are waiting for their hall tickets in Rajkot.

The school authorities are disappointed with the ‘irresponsible’ statements made by education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and law minister Pradipsinh Jadeja over their approach of the entire issue and private schools. The authorities of various self-financed schools had gathered at the Karansinhji High School, the designated centre for distribution of admit cards to different schools. They claimed that after Chudasama made a statement that school management cannot hold back admit cards of students even if s/he had not paid the school fee, many parents refrained from paying the fees.

“Even parents who are financially well-off have stopped paying fees after this (Chudasama’s) statement. Self-finance schools exist since 1999 and till date it has not happened that students did not get hall tickets because of unpaid fees,” said Jatin Bharad, president of Gujarat State Self-Finance School Management Association. The school authorities also alleged that law minister Jadeja had compared them with bootleggers. “Law minister in the state assembly had said that bootleggers, butchers and many school owners did not vote for BJP as they were unhappy with the government passing strict legislation on prohibition, cow slaughter and bringing new law to cap school fees. He compared us with bootleggers. We don’t expect these kind of statements from a minister and that too in the House,” Bharad added.

The school authorities feel government has maligned their image and have asked the state government to distribute tickets on their own. D K Vadodaria, director of Panchsheel School, said, “We are yet to collect Rs 10 lakh as fees and ministers are making irresponsible statements. How can we spoil a student’s career? We have helped Vijaybhai (Rupani) win the election. How can government say that we didn’t vote for them?” Rajkot district education officer (DEO) M R Sagarka said, “Some schools have collected the hall tickets and we are affirmative that the remaining schools will collect it on Saturday. I have received no written representation from school authorities.”