Every year a great rush, and race, for pre-school admissions is witnessed across the country, particularly in the metros, district headquarters, and places known specifically for “prestigious public schools”. Once successful in getting admission, parents feel assured of their ward getting “good quality education”, whatever that may mean eventually. Parents are willing to invest their lifetime savings to become part of the growing Indian middle class that is too eager to become the part of ‘Indian Elite’! Admissions in English-medium schools fuel hope for a bright future of their ward. Public perception on how these schools are opened and managed is very clear: they have invested and they deserve their dividends!
Parents are not worried about legal verdicts and stipulations that education ventures are not for earning profits. Technically, school managements are not allowed to conduct admission interviews, charge any donation or capitation fees, but every parent knows what the actual practice is. They are all willing to be part of it. This ‘willingness’ encourages private school managements to escalate their demands, put more and more burden on parents. They just cannot complain; children dread it as it could single them out. There were instances when parents complained, and the ward was summarily given a Transfer Certificate. There are rules, regulations, court orders on hike in school fees, but these have little impact on school managements who invariably know how to deal with the “officialdom”.
There, however, are instances when parents have resisted abnormal hikes in fees and other demands and have organised protests and even gone to courts. One of the most common practices to fleece parents is to create “extra facility” and charge for it; put additional financial burden in the name of organising fests and cultural meets, and competitions of various types. Parents are invariably under instructions to purchase books, learning materials, dress and any other accessory required from the ‘identified’ shops only! Everyone knows why.
The gap between theory and practice is too wide to be bridged. CBSE has come up with initiatives to reduce it substantially. It has issued orders to make all details public. The board has made it mandatory for its affiliated schools to put information under 130 heads on their websites by November 30.
Any thinking citizen would find it in order as these are the times of RTI Act and transparency is one of the core values in a democratic set-up. However, the manner in which private school managements have rather successfully scuttled every initiative to bring some order in making them realise their social responsibility, they were expected to find faults and resist.
And this is what they come forward with: unwilling to disclose ‘sensitive’ information! Some laughable arguments are: “What interest do the students have in the salary a teacher gets?” It is no secret that there are serious anomalies in salary disbursement in huge number of schools. In fact, a new concept of parent-management interaction mechanism needs to be actualised.
Issues like cleanliness, proper transport, drinking water, functional toilets, cases of harassment by teachers and of teachers, and a host of other issues deserve to be discussed between parents and managements. The PTA could concentrate more on issues related to curriculum transaction, project work, homework and, say, availability of guidance counsellor to perform his assigned tasks.
Transparency could enhance mutual trust. It would be good for all: parents, children and schools. Leading schools that enjoy public credibility must come forward, endorse the idea and make others also realise the value of this initiative. Even government schools must follow these norms. Universities must also be made to fall in line.
The writer is former director of the NCERT
rajput_js@yahoo.co.in