UAS comes out in support of SCPCR

Daily Pioneer: Dehradun: Monday, February 24, 2020.

A few days after the Principals Progressive Schools’ Association (PPSA) accused the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) of unnecessary interference in the functioning of private schools, the Uttarakhand Abhibhavak Sangh (UAS) has come out in support of SCPCR. According to the UAS, the SCPCR is working for the welfare of children as well as their parents.

Addressing the media here on Sunday, the members of UAS claimed that private schools violate many rules and regulations like increasing the school fee every year by a large percentage, running schools without affiliation and No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the government. If an authority like SCPCR asks these private institutions to work as per the guidelines and laws, they call it harassment and interference. According to the UAS president Ram Kumar Singhal, “SCPCR is taking actions because parents and guardians complain to the commission about the apathy of the school management towards the interests of students and their parents.

The schools take many arbitrary decisions that affect parents and their children. Parents approach SCPCR when schools do not listen to them or their complaints. Now if the child rights commission is listening to us and taking some action, they are accusing it of interference. Do these schools want to do whatever they want with the parents having no one to complaint to?”“Private schools are just doing business.

They increase the fees every year by a big margin and besides the monthly fee; they charge money from students in different ways.

All such schools exploit parents and children mentally and financially and they do not even want us to raise our voice as if they are doing us some kind of favour by letting our kids study in their schools,” said Singhal. He further added that UAS will meet the officials of the state education department regarding the apathy of private schools towards the rules and regulation for the welfare of children. According to the Supreme Court orders, the private schools also come under the purview of Right to Information (RTI) act and they will have to provide the details of their earnings to the parents if they demand it but the schools refuse to provide such information to anyone, said parents of children studying in private schools of Dehradun.

They further added that no child counsellor or POCSO committee has been formed by the schools for welfare of the children and that they are happy that SCPCR is pressurising these private education institutions to follow guidelines to benefit students.