Courts should run schools now: Kadu

Nagpur: Even as parents organisations blamed state education department for inaction against erring schools which arm-twist parents for fee recovery, minister of state for school education Bacchu Kadu said the department had acted against several leading schools, but every time the high court had played “a spoilsport”.
Countering calls for shutting down education department, Kadu said, “After I asked officials to conduct audit of private schools, it was detected that about Rs20 crore excess fee was collected by them. While asking the school managements to refund the fees, the department had also lodged police complaints against some of them. However, the HC stayed all our actions. I think, the courts should run the schools now.”
The minister added that parents can’t blame the department for inaction as it had acted against over 20 schools in the city, which is the highest in state.
After the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court had warned two leading schools in Nagpur against discontinuing online classes of two students over unpaid fees, parents organisations in city have claimed many private ones are still indulging in such “arm-twisting tactics” to recover dues.
Stressing that there should be some ceiling on fee charged by schools, the minister said the current Act regulating the fee was highly inadequate to handle this menace and, therefore, a stringent law is needed which grants more power to the government.
“While some schools are doing commendable work, a majority are indulging in profiteering. Schools affiliated to the central boards argue that they do not come under state control. Even Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) aren’t constituted in a legal way in most of them, so that they can increase the fees as per their whims and fancies. Unfortunately, even the parents aren’t coming out in the open to lodge complaints against the schools,” said Kadu.
Refuting the minister’s claims, Yogesh Pathare of Rashtriya Shikshak Palak Sanghatan (RPS) demanded that the department should be closed as it has failed to provide justice to thousands of parents, who had approached it with the complaints.
“Since last one-and-a-half years, the department hardly did anything to provide succour to the aggrieved parents, neither it had taken any concrete action against the schools charging exorbitant fees,” Pathare said speaking to TOI.
Another activist, who didn’t wish to be named, said despite Covid-19 pandemic and Supreme Court’s clear directives, many schools have hiked fees.
“Parents are simply demanding concession and nothing else due to the pandemic. All these years, they regularly paid the fees, without questioning the school authorities. Maharashtra state should take a lesson from Delhi government that had reduced fees considering the financial impact of the pandemic on the parents,” he told TOI.
While hearing Gandhi Sewa Sadan Vs Rajasthan government case, the Supreme Court had on February 8 ruled that schools can’t prohibit pupils from attending online/physical classes or appearing in examinations, nor they can withhold the results.