Chennai: The Madras high court has dismissed a petition, which sought a direction to the Union and Tamil Nadu governments to regulate, supervise the educational system and monitor the administration of various centres, registered in the name of Cambridge International Schools with the Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE), United Kingdom, Mumbai and Chennai.
A division bench comprising Justices S.Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad dismissed the petition filed by advocate P.V.K.Deivendran.
According to petitioner, CAIE located in the United Kingdom, has in association with the regional director, CAIE, at Mumbai, has entered into contracts with 488 schools across the state for imparting education. The Cambridge Schools were imparting Cambridge curriculum. The curriculum was divided in four stages 1) Cambridge primary for children below 5 to 11 years, 2) Cambridge lower secondary for children below 11 to 14 years, 3) Cambridge upper secondary for children below 14 to 17 years and 4) Cambridge advanced for students from 16 to 18 years. Exorbitant fees were charged for all the courses. The certificates obtained from these schools were not recognized either with the Union of India or with the respective boards. These institutions were completely irregular having no recognition and therefore, the Union of India and state of Tamil Nadu have to regulate and supervise the educational system and maintain the administration of various centres, he added.
Extracting the letter sent by the petitioner and the reply received from CAIE, the bench said there was no misrepresentation on the part of the CAIE that the education imparted by them was recognized in India. The CAIE was imparting education and was giving certificates without luring the public at large by giving any misinformation regarding recognition of the course in India. The CAIE was an United Kingdom entity and has a wholly owned subsidy which was the CAIE, Mumbai. The CAIE, Mumbai was a company registered under the Companies Act. The CAIE, Mumbai has entered into the contractual relationship with centres under United Kingdom law, and imparting Cambridge education. "It is for the people at large to opt for the education provided by these schools or not to opt for the Cambridge system of education. In the absence any false representation, it cannot be said that the respondents 3 to 5 (CAIE, UK, Mumbai and Chennai) are carrying on any activity which is prohibited by law. There is nothing in the petition and no document has been filed to show that the students have been misguided by the respondent 3 to 5”, the bench added.
