Hyderabad: Parents plan to hold a protest on Saturday to demand a Central legislation for quality education in schools and regulation of fees.
Representatives from various parents’ associations and NGOs from many states joined hands to form a federation as a show of unity following a national meeting held on the issue in Delhi on December 28 last year.
The parents’ association also decided to protest on a pre-schedule all over the country.
Handing out TC is worse
Students being asked to stand outside the class for not paying fees is a public humiliation of a child as singling out children disturbs them mentally, say parents.
In its fee hike report, the Professor Tirupati Rao Committee recommended that a student could be given a Transfer Certificate (TC) if fees are delayed by more than 45 days. So, how does such a measure impact a child’s psychology?
The issue has come to the fore after a girl student committed suicide owing to humiliation she felt on the school staff questioning her on delayed fees.
Parents say if a student can commit suicide after being singled out for non-payment of fees, the impact of handing out the TC could be even more horrific. After protests, prof. Rao promised to recall the recommendation, but parents have no access to the report to verify if it has indeed been removed.
G. Kishan, school education commissioner and director, said, “The government has not yet taken a final decision on the report of the prof. Rao committee but we have instructed all schools not to punish students in case of delay in fee payment. I have ordered the DEO to take strict action against the school where Deepthi was punished. We have initiated strict action against the school.”
Parents said they would still not accept the committee’s recommendations even if those clauses were not removed from it.
They said they will oppose all recommendations of the Prof Tirupati Rao’s panel and ensure it is scrapped. They claimed the report was not in keeping with the Right to Education Act.
