Chandigarh parents’ association raises issue of fee hike at pvt schools with education secretary

A delegation of Chandigarh Parents’ Association (CPA) met new education secretary Purva Garg on Friday and apprised her of issues concerning them including fee hike by private schools and non-uploading of balance sheets by them

A delegation of Chandigarh Parents’ Association (CPA) met new education secretary Purva Garg on Friday and apprised her of issues concerning them including fee hike by private schools and non-uploading of balance sheets by them.

The Chandigarh parents’ association also spoke to the education secretary about the organised nexus of private schools with private publishers, booksellers and uniform vendors. (HT File)

President of the association, Nitin Goyal, added that they also spoke to Garg about the organised nexus of private schools with private publishers, booksellers and uniform vendors. “In absence of strict action by the education department, most private schools prescribe textbooks and uniforms which are available only at shops with which they have a tie-up, even though they claim that parents are free to purchase the items from any shop. However, they are forced to buy them at exorbitant rates.”

The CPA delegation also shared lists of textbooks prescribed by prominent city schools, which revealed that additional subjects like computer/technology, art and craft and moral science are introduced in early classes, even at kindergarten level in some cases.

CPA member Gurpreet Kaur said that the schools do not use NCERT books and ask students to purchase 2-3 books of each subject, in addition to workbooks and notebooks. “Besides financial burden on parents and the mental pressure on kids, it directly results in heavy school bags, affecting the physical as well as mental health of the children in the long run,” said Kaur.

The delegation demanded that school uniforms should not carry logo or identification mark of the school, so that parents can buy or get it stitched from anywhere. “However, the school’s identity card, tie and belt carrying the logo and/or the school’s name can be made a part of the uniform, the price of which shall be fixed in consultation with the executive committee of the parents’ association. Also, school’s parent association must be consulted before changing the uniforms while stating the reasons for doing so,” said the delegation.

Garg said she will look into the matters and seek response from the department on the issues highlighted by CPA.