The new academic session has just begun and parents are, yet again, being forced to pay through the nose for buying books, uniform etc for their wards. Parents in the city said that the school management was forcing them to buy books, uniforms and study materials from particular shops at exorbitant rates against the instructions of the government and the CBSE.
The cost of a complete set of books and notebooks for KG-I student in Anand Vihar School can set you back by Rs 1,314 and for a standard nine student of Carmel Convent Senior Secondary School, BHEL, by Rs 4,711.Repeated instructions to school management to stick to only NCERT books have fallen on deaf ears. The father of a standard nine student of Carmel Convent Senior Secondary School, BHEL told Free Press, “Under pressure, some schools have included NCERT books in their syllabi but are additionally prescribing books published by private publishers.”
And these books are quite costly. For instance, he said, the NCERT Economics book for his daughter cost Rs 45 while the Geography book was priced at Rs 50. But in addition, he had to buy a book on Information Technology costing Rs 499 and a Drawing book for Rs 360. “No one in the school asked us to visit a particular shop but from experience, all of us know that the books will be available only from Sneh Book Centre in MP Nagar”, he added.
Some schools, going a step further, are selling books and uniform from the school premises itself. The mother of a child studying in standard eight in Delhi Public School said books and uniform were provided by the school and the charges for the same were collected along with the admission fee. Similarly, the mother of a class five student of Billabong High International School also said that the books were provided by the school.
She said that notebooks included in the set are often in excess. “At the end of the last session, I found that not a word had been written in many notebooks. And we cannot use them in the next session and that much money is wasted,” she said. The mother of a class nine student of NRI Global Discovery School said that not only books but she has to also buy uniform and sweater from a particular shop. “What can we do? Guidelines are fine but if the schools do not follow them, we have no option. If we don’t fall in line, they may insult the child or harass her in some other way,” she said.
“I was given a list of books and was told to buy them from Books & Books, MP Nagar. I dutifully did that and it cost me Rs 2,622,” said the mother of a standard one student of Anand Vihar School. She said that she is also required to buy the uniform for her son from Indraprastha store at Jawahar Chowk. “It is not available anywhere else,” she said.
Commissioner warns schools
Divisional commissioner Kalpana Shrivastava, while reiterating the instructions, On Tuesday had directed Rajiv Singh Tomar, joint director, public instruction, Bhopal to constitute district-wise committees to ensure that the norms are adhered to. She warned that if schools violate the norms, the government will write to the CBSE recommending cancellation of their affiliation.
We have formed a committee and it will begin work from tomorrow. We will probe whether the schools are following the orders of the commissioner. If not, we will register a case and present it in the court of the district magistrate. We have also received instructions to the same effect from the Commission for Protection of Child Rights
Dharmendra Sharma, district education officer, Bhopal