HYDERABAD: A PIL has been filed in the High Court seeking directions to the authorities to effectively implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act, prevent corporal punishment in schools, regulate school timings and weight of school bags.
The petitioners K Gurumurthy, an advocate from Nellore and A Vijaya Mohan Reddy, president of the Forum for Better Vikarma Sinhapuri urged the court to declare the failure of authorities in preventing corporal punishments as illegal.
They also wanted non-issuing proper instructions to inspecting officers, who ensure the effective implementation of the Act in schools declared as illegal and arbitary. Directions are to be given for 25 pc quota in admissions and fee reimbursement in private schools.
The petitioners also requested the court to issue orders to conduct awareness camps on Section 17 of the RTE Act in all the schools and educate children to lodge complaints if given physical punishments in school.
On the school-bag weight issue, they wanted the court to frame guidelines to regulate the weight and give instructions to all the inspecting officers to ensure that students do not carry bags which weigh more than a fourth of their body weight.
In order to check the fee structure, the petitioners requested the court to issue show-cause notices to managements of private schools who fail to submit their ‘Annual Administration Report’ and ‘Audited Statement of Accounts’ by September 30.