June 30, 2009

New Delhi: Is one branch of Delhi Public School equal to another?

Parents across the country have grappled with this question for decades as they scoured admission options at the prestigious school chain for their children, pulling out connections and credentials to snag elusive seats.
Now, the society in charge of the school, better known by its acronym DPS, is being forced to answer the same question.The DPS Society runs a network of 115 schools in India and 13 abroad.
In a letter to all owners of the schools, former president of the society, Congress party member and Supreme Court lawyer Salman Khurshid said a system where only 11 of those schools owned and run by the society have voting rights on its governing board is not fair to the franchise owners, who pay a fee for the right to use the DPS name and logo.
At the very least, Khurshid said, schools should have a right to vote for their governing body’s chairman and review the society’s finances. This becomes significant as schools currently pay a royalty to the society of Rs5 lakh per year. The royalty is set to go up to Rs25 lakh, Khurshid said.
I am saying, no taxation without representation, said Khurshid, asking the schools to stand united behind him. I cannot accept you as mere agents of DPS. Neither does our charter permit such a thing and what is more important is that public morality does not allow this. There cannot be ‘greater’ and ‘lesser’ DPS schools, Khurshid a DPS alumnus, member of the society since 1984 and its president for 12 years wrote in his 16 August letter.

Thrown out
After the letter, the society, headed by chairman and retired bureaucrat Ashok Chandra, voted to throw Khurshid out. One member said the dispute stems from Khurshid’s desire to be president of the society again, a role that is now not filled by anyone.
Our rules and regulations say a member can be asked to withdraw on a month’s notice, said Chandra of Khurshid’s dismissal. He said the notice asking Khurshid to withdraw from the society went out on 1 September. Chandra declined to comment on any of Khurshid’s other allegations.
Intertwined in the fight between Khurshid and the society are issues ranging from the use of influence to secure admissions to expensive junkets enjoyed by society members at the expense of the schools.
The society’s members include Planning Commission deputy chairman and DPS alumnus Montek Singh Ahluwalia, author Khushwant Singh and governor of Haryana A.R. Kidwai, along with retired bureaucrats and judges.
Its other members include principals of the 11 DPS schools owned by the society, including DPS R.K. Puram principal Shyama Chona, a well-known face in education circles. Chona declined to comment.
http://www.livemint.com/2008/09/04004237/DPS-Society-expresident-seeks.html

One more Hyderabad school gets rescued by High Court of AP

Great news for Parents of schools in Hyderabad as today our High Court has directed one more school management to collect last year fee while admitting the writ petition by their Parents Association. It was Meridian School who went knocking at judicial door, then followed by DPS Secunderabad, DPS Hyderabad & now Niraj Public School ..... Those of you who maybe interested in complete order may login using the URL http://hc.ap.nic.in/pls/lobis/caseno2?cn=WP_12224_2009

Now onus is on us (Parents) to take this momentum further with stronger will & support than has been till today. We may, call for a meeting with our CM sometime next week depending on his schedule, who has agreed to give us a hearing. This day to make a impact on the political system, should have large representation by every Parent from not just DPaS, but from schools across the city. Get ready to spare your valuable time with a short notice, to help yourselves & the future society of this great country.

Do you know, education is a fundamental right in this country & no system can take away this right from the future of this country & Lets all unite & fight for this for a better society tomorrow.

June 29, 2009

From the President's Desk

Dear Parents
We thank the 100plus parents who attended the General Body Meeting (GBM), with a short notice, late in the evening of saturday asking to spare 2hours on sunday ie 28.06.2009. It was a great gathering, for a change under a roof, from our normal meetings braving hot sun, opposite school !!!

I personally noticed a big change that many parents are willing to join our core committee and ready to share responsibility to improve school in all respects. Its the time, now, for all of us to spread the most important word, as to why every parent of DPS Secunderabad need to join our association :
1. Our writ is likely to come for hearing in next few days, as per our lawyers & once the judgement comes out, be aware that its going to be applicable to the signed up members of the association only & not to every parent in general. This is something that we feared from day one & were literally requesting every parent to please sign up for a minuscule registration money of Rs 100. We have passed message to many parents to join us via emails, SMS, tele calls etc, still many more to join. We are going to issue membership numbers soon for our members.
2. August is not far away, we need to pay second term fee. We as DPaS have many options open for us to explore, but for those who are not members, we can't really say anything, as the court case is for only members only. We have a mandate from the GBM held on 28.06.2009 to take the case to next level should it fail at the present level & once again mind its for the member parents only & not for every parent of the school.

DPaS has been formed for all the parents of the children studying in our school & is looking forward for reciprocal support from every parent. So parents please,. hurry up, join the Association, you have waited enough, tested our GUTS enough and we are sure that together we can do wonders. Inform all your friends ASAP & enroll every parent in the association. We intend to close membership drive shortly. Vikas, owner of Nikhil Medicals, who is our DPS parent, very near to our school is holding a registration book, any parent who is not a member of DPaS, can become member by paying registration fee of Rs. 100/- ASAP.
Long Live DPaS,
Subbu

June 27, 2009

From the President's Desk

DPaS Core Invites all parents to be present for the General Body Meeting tomorrow @ the venue mentioned below

  • to update member on what has been happening on our activities
  • to take feedback from members on various other activities that we need to focus upon
  • plan for future activities & actions
  • formation of planned committees
  • enrollment of volunteers
  • membership drive

Intimation is being sent very late due to delay in finalisation of venue & few other related activities. Parents are requested to gather in full number to make this meeting more meaning full. for your & all our kids future, lets spare 2hours from your personal time tomorrow.

RATNA SUDHA NILAYAM (COMMUNITY CENTER), SECTOR C, AWHO COLONY, SIKH ROAD, SECUNDERABAD 500 009

This place is opposite Bank of Baroda ATM, about 200mtrs from our school towards market yard.

Once again, sincere request to be present in large numbers & don't worry about kids, as there's a park for them to play while you attend the meeting.

As if Hyderabad is different from the world ?

A historic ruling on schools

Frontline Volume 21 - Issue 10, May 08 - 21, 2004

India's National Magazinefrom the publishers of THE HINDU V. VENKATESAN in New Delhi

The Supreme Court lays down guidelines to prevent profiteering by unaided schools in Delhi. In Delhi there are 1,500 private unaided schools offering `quality education' to about 30 per cent of the city's children. But this education comes at a price: these schools collect Rs.1,500 to 2,000 as tuition fee a month (some schools charge even Rs.8,000 a month) and amounts ranging from Rs.2,000 to 30,000 as annual fee for their own `development'. `Development', as parents have found, often means constructing more buildings, financing other schools run by the management and even creating and maintaining swimming pools. The schools do not generally fulfil their statutory obligation of filling 25 per cent of the seats with children from the weaker sections and granting freeship to them.

The Supreme Court is expected to make private unaided schools affordable for children from middle-class families.

All this will have to change following the Supreme Court's judgment in Modern School vs Union of India & Others, delivered on April 27. It is expected that the school fees will be slashed by about 60 per cent, thus fulfilling the aspirations of middle-class and lower middle-class parents of educating their wards in these schools. The court also directed the schools to ensure that they meet the statutory requirement of admitting children from the weaker sections. A three-member Bench delivered the verdict by a majority of 2:1. Justice S.H. Kapadia gave the ruling on behalf of himself and Chief Justice of India V.N. Khare, while Justice S.B. Sinha authored the dissent.

The case came up before the Supreme Court as appeals by several unaided private schools in Delhi against a Delhi High Court judgment. The High Court had found considerable proof that recognised unaided schools were blatantly commercialising education. The High Court confirmed the existence of irregularities in the accounts maintained by these schools. It also declared that the Delhi School Education Act, 1973, and the rules framed under it prohibited the transfer of funds from a school to a society/trust running the school or to other schools run by the same society/trust. The High Court had appointed a committee headed by Justice Santosh Duggal to examine the economics of each of the recognised unaided schools in Delhi.

The Directorate of Education, Government of Delhi, accepted the Duggal Committee's report in 1999 and under the provisions of the Delhi School Education Act issued directions to the managing committees of all recognised unaided schools in Delhi on December 15, 1999. The school managements challenged the validity of these directions, one of which limited development fees to 10 per cent.

The 141-page Duggal Committee report stated that of the 142 schools that supplied the complete record of their financial status, only two were justified in hiking the fee. Although there were 929 Delhi government-recognised unaided schools and 377 unaided schools recognised by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and New Delhi Municipal Committee, only 142 provided the documents sought by the committee. The rest of the schools did not adopt a cooperative attitude, the report noted. The report said these schools tended to "generally understate the surplus and/or overstate the deficit". This was achieved by "resorting to over-provisioning under certain heads... diverting a part of the school revenue receipts to various funds usually created with the specific intention of temporarily parking the money... depreciating assets not owned by the school and simultaneously transferring equivalent amounts to the parent society... ."

The parent societies (and not the schools) were allotted land at concessional rates on philanthropic grounds and as such the transfer of funds to a parent society is a grave matter. But the Committee found that "no ways and means are left untapped by them to turn the philanthropic activity like school education into a profitable venture in one form or the other". There is, therefore, no rationale whatsoever for a fee hike. The Supreme Court observed in a 1997 verdict: "Where the public property is being given to such institutions practically free... the conditions imposed should be consistent with public interest and should always stipulate that in case of violations of any of those conditions, the land shall be resumed by the government."

In their petition in the High Court, the parents associations alleged that the amounts collected under the head `tuition fee' were in excess of the expenditure incurred, and that huge amounts were taken from parents as interest-free loan for granting admission to children. They also alleged that the huge amounts collected under the head `building fund' remained unspent. The schools submitted that the increase in fees, annual charges, admission fees and security deposits were justified on account of the increase in expenses, in particular the salaries of teachers in compliance with the Fifth Pay Commission's recommendations.

Section 17(3) of the Delhi School Education Act, 1973, states that every recognised school shall file before the commencement of each academic session with the Director a full statement of the fees to be levied and no school shall charge any fees in excess of the fees specified in such statement. Sections 17(1) and (2) empower the government to regulate the fees payable by aided schools. Other sections under the Act require that the income derived from unaided schools by way of fees shall be utilised only for prescribed educational purposes. Rule 177(8) under the Act clearly says that no amount can be transferred from the recognised unaided school fund to a society or trust or any other institution.

The income derived by way of fees can be utilised for meeting the pay, allowances and other benefits admissible to the employees of the school.. If there is anything remaining of such income, after making these payments, the managing committee of the school could use the same for other educational purposes, including the award of scholarships to pupils and the establishment of any other recognised school. The rules make it clear that savings could be arrived at only after providing for pension, gratuity and other benefits to the employees of the school and for any expenditure in connection with the school's development.

In the T.M.A. Pai Foundation case (2002), an 11-member Bench of the Supreme Court held that subject to the twin prohibitions on collecting capitation fee and profiteering, fees to be charged by unaided educational institutions cannot be regulated. In the Islamic Academy of Education case (2003), the Supreme Court held that there could be no rigid fee structure and that each institution should have the freedom to fix its own fee structure after taking into account the need to generate funds to administer the institution and provide facilities to the students.

In the present case, the Supreme Court has held that the Director is authorised to regulate the fees and other charges to prevent the commercialisation of education.

The Supreme Court opined that one of the methods of preventing the commercialisation of education in schools is to insist that every school follow the principles of accounting applicable to not-for-profit organisations/non-business organisations. The court thus directed the Director to analyse the statements of fees of the schools and apply the above principle in each case. The court found, on the basis of the balance sheets of two schools, that they were run on a profit-making basis and that their accounts were maintained as if they were corporate bodies.

The court upheld the collection of development fees by schools for supplementing resources for the purchase, upgradation and replacement of furniture, fixtures and equipment. It permitted the managements of unaided schools to charge development fees not exceeding 15 per cent of the total annual tuition fee. The court interpreted the 1973 Act so as to bring in transparency, accountability, expenditure management and utilisation of savings for capital expenditure/investment without infringement of the autonomy of the institution in the matter of fixing fees. The court asked the Director to ascertain whether the terms of allotment of land by the government to the schools had been complied with. The terms of allotment require not only strict compliance with the percentage of freeship from tuition fee as laid down in the rules by the Delhi Administration, but also admission of pupils from the weaker sections to the extent of 25 per cent and the grant of freeship to them. Contrary to the misgivings expressed by the school managements, the integration of children from the poorer sections with those of the `elite' has been generally welcomed by the parents of children from the non-weaker sections, says Ashok Agarwal, convener of Social Jurist, a non-governmental organisation and one of the petitioners before the High Court.

June 23, 2009

Open house discussion with the Committee formed by Govt of AP




Today was a big day for all parents (alike to the school managements) who met up with the committee formed by the government of AP to look into the fee hikes in private schools in AP. This as most of you know was held in Jubilee Hall. The entire hall (one of the largest in AP) jam packed with representations from parents, management & student bodies across AP & not just Hyderabad alone.

HSPA has submitted our representation in writing to the management

  1. Asked for complete role back of fees
  2. Need to have the fee hikes regulated
  3. Need to have a elected Parents - Teachers Association (PTA) that can take active role in every activity in the school including strategic decisions like addition/deletion of facilities, any change in fees etc.
  4. Need to have at least 2 parents in the government committee

DPaS did represent in big numbers ... thanks to all the parents who came & spent few hours from their busy schedules & share their thoughts & suggestions with the committee & also to the press. This we feel is a strong step towards creating a better environment & better society. Those of who who couldn't make it can drop their views in writing before this friday evening (26th June, 2009) @ the Department of Education, next to BSNL exchange in Lak-di-ka pool.

We can expect first cut say from the committee on 29th June, 2009. However word of caution being lets all get united irrespective of what the outcome of this maybe ... together we stand, we win.

June 22, 2009

DPaS Core : this maybe your last chance to represent yourself

Government has formed a committee to look into the various atrocious activities happening in various schools across the state including unjustified fee hikes. This committee will be available to public to meet them & present their views tomorrow (23rd June, 2009) from 10.30 to 13.00 hrs @ JUBILEE HALL, Public Gardens, Nampally.

Individual parents are requested to be present & express their concerns to the committee. We warn this maybe our last chance as individual parents & recommend you all, who wanted to, to represent your individual opinion's.

We once again warn this may be your last chance to present your concerns & missing this can lead to any decisions being made & the decision will be enforced on you, with no other choice ... think over once, before you decide on YES or NO.

June 20, 2009

First time ever in Hyderabad - Parents of various schools getting together for a protest.





The HSPA rally today (20th June) was a grand success with the parent associations of following schools participating.. Meridian, DPS (Hyd & Secbad), Niraj, Cal, Chirec, Princess Esin, Sreenidhi and a few more. Parents participated with full enthusiasm and the message was clear that parents will not leave any stone unturned to fight back. DPaS is thankful to all parents of DPS Secunderabad who were a part of this rally in making this event a grand success (spending 2 valuable hours from their busy personal/professional schedule for a noble cause).

A very special note of thanks to the Hyderabad City Police for permitting & supporting us during the event & the Media from across, who came in large numbers.

HSPA through this rally presented the following demands:
1. We demand immediate roll back of the Fee Hike for this academic year 2009-10, as the entire economy is reeling under recession and many Parents have either lost job or taken a huge Pay cuts.We have submitted a memorandum to Hon’ble Chief Minister on 14th June and submitted a memorandum to our Education Minister also in this regard.
We were given to understand that the Govt is planning to make a committee to look into the Fee structure and put some ceiling on Fee structure based on School type and related facilities. However we the Parents of HSPA request our Govt to take notice of other states like Maharashtra, Orrissa, New Delhi.. where the Govt. ordered complete roll back for this year and asked the School Managements to submit statement of accounts, as immediate action.
2. We request Govt to include Two representatives from HSPA into the committee that is being constituted, who can give true picture from the parents side.
3. We demand all the schools to form PTA ( Parent Teacher Association ) immediately to look into various aspects of the overall development of the school along with fee hike. Addition of any new facility or Implementation of fee hike or any category of additional fee should happen only after consultation and consent from the PTA of the school. The school managements should share the audited financial data of the school every year with the PTA.
4. Introduce a Maximum ceiling of fee hike to only 5% per annum, not 35 to 65 % like this year.
5. We strongly urge AP state Govt to take stern action against such schools who are indulging in commercializing of Primary education.

June 18, 2009

Very important Notice for the rally by Hyderabad Police

All parents are request to adhere to the rules mentioned above with no deviation. This is mandatory per the permission given to us by the Police Department & respect the same as law abiding citizens & also fighting for a rightful cause for the society.

Please make sure no unto ward incidents happen during our rally & show our decency & decorum to the world.

JOIN, BRING, SPREAD (all schools parents invited) & show your strength to the city

To take our cause to larger audience we’ve associated ourselves with Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA) along with many other schools in Hyderabad & Secunderabad. As you would’ve read in the news papers or in TV, we had many representations done to various government officials including Chief Minister & Education Minister of AP. Some favorable responses did come in & to make more impact on their decisions in favour of parents, we’ve planned for a massive rally

20th June, 2009 @ 09.00 AM from
Goshala (near Hotel Marriott) to Indira Park




Route map for the venue & the rally route



From the Presidents Desk : Nenu Saitam....Nenu Saitam... ( I too..... I too....)

Parents,

Many of you must be reading lot of articles in News papers and must be watching news on TV sets about fee hike in AP.

I must admit it all happened because of your association member's relentless work. When many of our members were enjoying summer vacation, your association members were working day in and day out to keep the issue alive and kicking, using print media and TV.

When we had new government, your association did not loose anytime in meeting Hon'ble Chief minister and Hon'ble Education minister along with Hyderabad and Secunderabad Parents Association in making the political system understand the gravity of the issue. ( you can see print media and TV reports ).

Many of you may not be aware that what good we have done to our teachers in DPS secunderabad. Because of our pressure Management is implementing 6th Pay commission Pay scales to our teachers. I can personally see smiles on our teachers faces. they deserve it long time back, never the less, better late than never. This will help us in retaining the teachers and we can expect quality education to our children.

With regards to High Court writ Petition, we are waiting for hearing date, However we do believe in Judicial system in India and we are hopeful for favourable hearing.

So, finally we are so far successful in creating awareness in Political and judicial systems, now the time has come for us to tell common Man about our plight, social awareness. as part of this only, HSPA is organising a silent protest from Marriot hotel to Indira park on Saturday at 9:00 AM.

Last but not the least, HSPA's backbone is DPS, I urge all our parents to come and participate in the protest rally ( Pls. bring your placard with an opt caption ) on Saturday ( 20/06/09 ) without fail. Together we win.

Those who are not members of DPaS can also become members on that day.

Jai Ho! Jai Ho! Jai Ho!

June 17, 2009

Article in Today's Deccan Chronicle

Panel links fee to amenitiesJune 17th, 2009 By Our Correspondent Hyderabad
June 16: An expert panel has asked the state government to set up a regulatory commission to fix fee in schools based on the facilities provided by the managements. This will prevent school managements from distressing parents by increasing the fee according to their whims.
“The committee has insisted that representatives of parents be made members of the regulatory commission which would work at the state level and in all the districts, said Mr Gowrishankar, assistant director and convener of the expert panel on school fee.
Regulatory commissions controlling professional colleges providing engineering and medicine courses have already been termed a success.
Another recommendation of the committee is that fee structure fixed by the regulatory commission shall be in vogue for three years. The committee also put a ceiling of 10 per cent profit and recommended that student strength be restricted to 1,300. School managements shall first submit a proposal on how much fee they intend to collect along with audit reports detailing the maintenance cost, salaries and other expenditure.
Further, they shall give details of facilities provided including playground, benches, tables, fans, toilets, drinking water sources and other amenities.“We will conduct physical inspections to verify the claims,” said the committee, which classified schools into three categories A, B and C.
The eight-member panel consisted of five IAS officials, a representative from Chinmaya Vidya Mission, Chennai, Mrs Usha Kanda, wife of former chief secretary, Mr Mohan Kanda, and Mr Narayana Reddy, principal of a school in Warangal.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/hyderabad/panel-links-fee-amenities-506

Parents’ activism takes root


Parents’ activism takes root
Parents of students in schools all over the city are joining hands to fight school managements
Sudipta Sengupta TNN Hyderabad:
An exorbitant hike in school fee, in some cases as much as 50 per cent, in times of recession and job loss has catalysed a citizen’s movement the city had never witnessed before - that of the parent community joining hands to fight against school managements. This new form of activism in the city, over the last few months, has seen parents conducting rallies, meeting officials, staging protests and even fighting legal battles against managements to ensure that the hike is rolled back and that schools settle for a more reasonable amount. While parents of children in two city schools have already won half the battle with the high court directing authorities of Meridian High School and Delhi Public School to collect only the first term fee until further hearing on the matter, several other parents are also lining up before the court now for similar orders. The final hearing of the case is slated for sometime this week. New parent associations are being formed and the existing ones are getting healthier, stronger. For instance, the Andhra Pradesh Students and Parents Association (APSPA) that was formed in February last year, until recently, had only a bunch of enthusiastic parents as members. But ever since the fee hike issue was reported, the forum has been flooded will calls from parents eager to register and fight the battle under the APSPA banner. “After the group was formed I went from school to school trying to convince parents to be part of APSPA but received no response. Now, parents are suddenly very interested in signing up and voicing their concern through the forum,” said Pramod Kumar Amruth, president, APSPA. Also, the recently created Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA), which is still awaiting registration, has already attracted close to 2,200 members, comprising parents from seven schools in the city. The forum soon plans to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking relief from the fee hike. Interestingly, this battle against school authorities is no more restricted to parents with children studying in up market private schools in the city. Even parents of those going to smaller schools like Princess Esin Girls High School in the Old City, are ready to take on the management on this issue now. The parents’ association of this school has already approached the Human Rights Commission and is awaiting a verdict by Wednesday. “If the ruling is not in our favour, then we will go to the high court,” said S S Muslehuddin, who is part of the forum. He rues that the school, which is supposed to be run by a non-profit trust is now charging close to Rs 41,300 as admission fee for nursery grade.“People in the Old City can’t afford to pay such an exorbitant amount,” he said adding that even the increase in fee is becoming a burden for parents there. Muslehuddin’s concerns are no different from those of other parents in the city. “We have been putting up with the whims and fancies of the school management for far too long. While the school prospectus clearly states that the annual fee hike would be between 5 and 10 per cent, it has been charging much more than that over the last twothree years. But this year it shook us up with a whopping 40 per cent hike in fee,” said Subrahmanyam N who has two children studying in DPS, Secunderabad and is expected to pay Rs 44,000 this year as tuition fee for each child. “That is when we decided that we need to get together and address the issue,” he added. The Delhi Public School Parents Association (Hyderabad and Secunderabad), whose case would now be heard jointly with Meridian School Parents Association, now hope that the final ruling is in their favour. Parents, while glad that their battle so far has been a success, admit that they would never have so actively participated in this had they not been hit by recession. “It is only after we saw that our friends, who were losing jobs and facing pay cuts, were considering pulling their children out of the school, did we realise the need to fight this battle,” said N Ravi Kumar, secretary of the DPS parents association, Secunderabad. Like him several other parents agree that this form of activism is fairly new in the city, where until last year it would be an uphill task to get even a handful of parents together for a meeting or a rally. “The response and support has been overwhelming. Once HSPA gets registered, it would be the first forum of its kind in the city and we hope to do a lot of good work under this banner,” said Kamal J Maliramani, vice president of the Meridian school parents group praying that their first battle ends on a winning note.

Now Government reacts in our support !!!

Todays Sakshi & Vaartha carried front page articles on the formation of a committee to take care of "whats happening in city schools". A big thanks to all for bringing the issue to this level of discussions ..
http://sakshi.com/main/SportsDetailsNormal.aspx?catid=255901&categoryid=1&subcatid=33

Happening week for schools in Hyderabad









First it was the meeting HSPA had with Chief Minister of AP, which happened on sunday. We had representation from DPaS as well ...
Few more news papers did cover this article ......

Second was the story carried by iNews on monday, which spoke loudly what has been happening across the schools .... just go on & raise the fee & nothing else has been their attitude.

June 11, 2009

YSR wants private schools’ fee structure monitored

HYDERABAD: The State government has decided to separate primary and secondary education, post two separate Secretaries and create two Directorates.
The primary education will cover classes I to V besides pre-primary and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) while secondary education will include class VI to X and till XII (higher secondary).
The decision was taken by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy while taking up comprehensive review on the working, achievements and issues relating to school education along with Ministers and officials. He wanted them to come up with proposals to regulate private schools, prevent them from charging exorbitant fees in the name of quality education.
Dr. Reddy also agreed to the proposal to have separate Special Secretaries to look after service matters of the teachers for both the departments, according to a press release from the Chief Minister’s Office.
The Chief Minister stressed the need for secondary education to focus on English medium. Both departments should see that all government schools had permanent buildings, additional classrooms, toilets and compound walls.
Besides, primary education and SSS, the Secretary, Primary education, will take care of adult education, public libraries, Jawahar Bal Bhavan, AP Mahila Samatha Society, AP Open Schools Society, SCERT and AP Text Book Press. The Secretary, Secondary education, will also be in charge of Government examinations, AP Residential Educational Institutions Society, Hyderabad Public School and Intermediate education.
Madrasas
Dr. Reddy asked the departments to come up with a detailed proposal to constitute Madrasas Board and how to recognise the syllabus of madrasas so that the students passing out from them get jobs. The school education department officials told the Chief Minister that there was delay in supply of text books because of elections and model code. However, textbooks for class VI to X were ready and will be supplied by second week of this month. For other classes, they will be supplied by month-end.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/10/stories/2009061053900400.htm

June 07, 2009

DPaS welcomes Students, Parents & Teachers to the new academic year 2009-2010

Warm welcome to the entire faternity of the school for the new academic year with new thoughts in our minds, fresh blood for new decisions, new plans for progression ... & a very new way of life. While we're fresh in every aspect for the new year starting form tomorrow, we @ DPaS as mandated by over 550 member Parents have had done enough work to keep up our movement as remarkable & progressive in nature.

Thoughts for the new & fresh year for Team DPaS :

1. The important agenda is to grow our members base from 550 plus to at least 1200 plus(ifn't 1800 plus) in next 1month. Please do invite all the parents you know to write to us @
dpssecunderabad@gmail.com for registration. We plan to have membership registration camps at least twice this week at the school. Membership fee is still nominal @ Rs 100 per parent.

2. The court case id due for hearing this week. If you want to track it, you may use this link & follow on your own
http://hc.ap.nic.in/pls/lobis/caseno1?kmtype=WP&kmno=9819&kmyear=2009

3. As has been discussed, our agenda to is make a positive contribution to the school by all parents, most of them being professionals in their own chosen field/verticals. This gives a big momentum to take whole lot of positive volunteered energies to work for betterment of the school. To take this up forward, few subcommittees are proposed to be formed. Separate communication will land in your email boxes in few days from now on t his, in detail & request each member to add to it.

4. We propose to have General Body Meeting (GBM) in coming days (not later than 20th of June).

5. Most of you would've followed the media (Print & TV) & our blog off course, which clearly shows the positive movement by various government bodies towards the cause we've started & we're one of the force to be counted on for this to happen.

For those, who are not aware, please be informed that a larger body called Hyderabad Schools Parents Association is under formation & as of now over 16 schools are together ... this parent body has complete support to take this cause for the benefit of all the schools in Hyderabad & Secunderabad. For any support related information you may write to us or @
parentshyderabad@yahoo.in

Finally we need volunteers from parents to come forward to make the initiatives being planned. We welcome parents who want to contribute time & effort for one of the planned committee's by writing to
dpssecunderabad@gmail.com.

Thank you for all the support & Lets together make this happen ..

Regards,
President of DPaS

June 06, 2009

Re-opening of school postponed for DPS Hyderabad (only)

Notice as per the dpshyderabad.com site ... http://dpshyderabad.com/circular.htm
& this is not applicable for DPS Secunderabad.

Dear Parents,
Due to unavoidable reasons we are compelled to postpone the re-opening of the school from June 8th to June 15th 2009. The detailed re-opening schedule is as follows:

Pre-Nursery : 22nd June 2009
Nursery & Prep : 17th June 2009
Class I to X : 15th June 2009

Principal
DPS, Hyderabad

June 04, 2009

Discussion on Fee Hikes by Schools on TV5 today

DPaS Joint Secretary V Ramakrishna today participated in a live show telecasted at about 20.20hrs in TV5 on the subject "Fee hikes by Schools". This show had Hyderabad District Collector Sri. Navin Mittal & Sri KJ Reddy of Kennedy High Schools also participating for a discussion.

We'll try & get the video posted on our blog shortly ....

June 03, 2009

Law soon to put cap on fee hike

TIMES NEWS NETWORK Hyderabad: Admitting that though it is tough to control the private school managements for hiking the school fee, the minister for school education M Vara Prasada Rao on Tuesday said that the government is contemplating to bring a law to curb this practice. Replying to a query on the hike in the fee by the private managements, the minister expressed his helplessness but later said he would talk to the chief minister and see that a law was passed to control the managements for taking huge fees. Earlier, the minister held a review meeting with the officials of the school education. The minister said that 60 per cent of the text books were already dispatched to the district head quarters and by first week of the academic year they will be handed over to the schools. He said that 5.91 crore text books are required and till now 3.46 crore have already sent to the district head quarters. He said that a monitoring cell will be started in his peshi from June 22 to facilitate distribution of text books. The officials will be monitoring from Wednesday onwards. The minister said that the key to the DSC question papers will be released on June 4.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Hyderabad/Law-soon-to-put-a-cap-on-fee-in-pvt-schools/articleshow/4610496.cms

June 02, 2009

Govt clears fee hike in Pvt schools in Rajasthan

JAIPUR: The state government on Monday approved a fee hike in private schools. These schools can raise fees between 17.5% and 18.5% for this academic year provided that with this increase the total hike since 2007-08 does not exceed 32.5%.
“Schools that have increased fees over the upper limit of 32.5% in the last three years will have to adjust the excess amount in the coming months,” said R P Jain, principal secretary, education department. He added that schools which have not raised fees for the last two years can raise them by 20% this academic year.
The government had constituted a committee headed by education secretary Bhaskar Sawant to examine the financial implications of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission on private schools. The committee was formed last December after the fee-hike issue took a political turn with agitated parents approaching chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who assured support. The final report was submitted to education minister Master Bhanwarlal Meghwal, who cleared it on Monday.
“The government decision to regulate school fees was taken to safeguard the interests of teachers and parents,” Meghwal said. Schools have to fulfil two conditions in order to raise fees.
First, teachers and administrative employees should be regular staff. And second, they should be paid in accordance with the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.
“The department has made the provision of 15% fee hike on account of Sixth Pay Commission while the rest can be attributed to inflation,” added Jain. The department will look into petitions filed by those schools which feel aggrieved by the suggestions.
The grievances will be addressed within 30 days.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Jaipur/Govt-clears-fee-hike-in-pvt-schools/articleshow/4606331.cms