Hyderabad: The action taken by the National Commission for Child Rights, Delhi, in ordering an inquiry into the Delhi Public School, Nacharam, on the fees issue and the lack of action by the police, has been lauded by the Telangana Parents’ Associations (TPA) and Hyderabad Schools’ Parents’ Association (HSPA), who claim that their repeated complaints over the years have been ignored by the state government and the police department.
They allege a murky nexus between the government and the schools in the city since they have provided concrete proof of how schools have become profiteering institutions.
Mr Ashish Naredi, the executive committee member of the HSPA says, “In 2017, we approached the police for help regarding the school fee issue. We had a list of four schools who were charging more than Rs 5,000 for admission, which is an offence as per GO 91.”
“We had all the necessary documents and our complaint was accepted. We even received an acknowledgement. But an FIR was not registered. We filed an RTI demanding an explanation, however, one of the schools we had listed asked us to take back the RTI and file a fresh complaint, which we did, but it had the same result.”
He said that since they were getting no help from the police, they decided to raise awareness about the fee hike issue. The association filed RTIs and released the balance sheets of some schools in May, 2017, showing that schools were parking their profits in shell companies. Despite these startling revelations, no action was taken by the state government.
“We continued to try to get the attention of the Chief Minister but the committee appointed by the government kept letting us down. Now that a status quo has been issued, it is some relief but we still need an answer to our demands. It is not education but profit that is happening in the state,” says Mr Naredi.
Complaints were filed by the HSPA at Jubilee Hills, Raidurgam and Madhapur police stations against four schools, one of which was charging around Rs 95,000 as capitation fee. Police officials apparently congratulated HSPA for highlighting the fee issue, but their complaint was not processed further.
