Nov. 13: Annoyed that the state government has done nothing to control the high fees being charged by private schools, parents’ associations have decided to file a contempt of court case against the government, as the Andhra Pradesh High Court has ruled in favour of fee regulation in private schools in August this year.
Parents’ associations of CBSE, ICSE, Central Schools and Kendriya Vidyalayas joined hands on Saturday to form the AP Parents Associations’ Coordination Committee (APPACC), a broader platform to fight against indiscriminate fee hikes.
The committee vowed not to pay the increased fees till the state government comes out with a regulatory mechanism, and dared school managements to remove children from the rolls for non-payment of fees.
The APPACC has even said it will involve political parties and students’ unions and intensify the agitation. “Private schools are openly flouting the norms and continue to raise fees. There are cases where the school management has harassed parents and their children for not paying the hiked fee. Since a number of private schools are owned and run by bigwigs and friends and relatives of politicians, the government is not pursuing the case ardently,” alleged Mr Azher Mohiuddin, the president of the APPACC.
He also alleged that the school managements have been bribing ministers and officials in the school education department, which is the reason for the delay in bringing in a fee regulatory mechanism despite the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s orders.
In Hyderabad at least, many schools are talking to telangana supporters/politicians so that any agitation against them will be showcased as a fight between pro-anti telangana. And surprisingly none of these school managements are actually from the telangana region. This is a very clever move by private schools.
ReplyDeleteI had to remove my child from Chirec after they called parents and harassed us for questioning fee-hikes.