HYDERABAD: A division bench of Telangana High Court on Monday issued notice to the State government for filing counter affidavit in four weeks in a PIL filed seeking directions to the authorities concerned to implement various provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) by publishing Form-I (self declaration cum application for school recognition) of all private schools in the State, by establishing Right to Education Protection Authority (REPA), no school to be established without obtaining certificate of recognition and so on.
The bench was dealing with a PIL filed by Vijay Gopal, president of an NGO “Forum against corruption” of the city, complaining that the Telangana government was not implementing the mandatory provisions of RTE Act which was in force since April 1, 2010.
Petitioner’s counsel B Rachna Reddy contended that the management of several private schools have willfully ignored to implement mandatory provisions of the Act and accordingly not furnished their accounts to TS government since last several years.
The Act mandates that each and every school has to furnish its accounts to the state govt, but the private schools blatantly violated the provisions of the Act. Due to non-implementation of mandatory provisions of the Act by the govt, the private schools managements were resorting to fleece the parents of the students with exorbitant fees.
After hearing the case, the bench issued notices to the respondents who included principal secy to school education, commissioner and director of school education, district collectors of Hyd and Ranga Reddy and dist education officers concerned to respond to the contentions raised by the petitioner, and adjourned the case hearing by four weeks.