Fee hike: Telanana government officials scramble to prove plaints looked into
Hyderabad: Vijay Gopal, the petitioner before the National Child Rights Commission, who took up the cause of parents battling high school fees, said his complaint had been pending for more than a year with the state child rights commission and also with the director of school education, “and I am glad it has borne fruit.
“I did not approach the CBSE for help. However, I will include them as well in my further complaints.”
Government officials in the departments concerned are falling over themselves to prove that they have attended to complaints.
Complaints received by the Child Welfare department are forwarded to the Education Board. The assistant director of the Telangana School Education Board, Mr Sadanand says, “The fee loot issue in TS is well known and we receive complaints from many parents which we forward to the district education officers (DEO) concerned.
We have tried to keep up with each complaint and notified the Rao Committee that enquired into schools in TS and their fee structures.”
Hyderabad district collector Yogitha Rana, to whom the letter from the National Child Rights Commission was addressed asking for an inquiry, said that she was unaware about the letter. However, an inspection would be conducted as per the NCRC orders and the respective district educational officers would also be notified, she said.
"Whenever a parent approaches us about high fees, we notify the schools. However, complaints never seem to proceed further. The schools do not submit their data. Despite an official website having been started by the government, many schools are still trying to find loopholes in sharingthat would allow them not to share their personal fee structures," said a DEO, who did not seem to realise how ineffective he sounded.
The HSPA has asked parents to proceed on their own and file complaints in their local police stations if the capitation fee exceeds Rs 5000. Hridesh Gupta, a parent and member of HSPA, says that now that the national commission has taken cognizance of the complaint, the HSPA will also file complaints it has gathered about schools in the city.
