Letter war between schools, UT department over RTI

Times of India: Chandigarh: Saturday, August 02, 2014.

The UT education department and city private schools have again got themselves embroiled in a letter war. And, this time the reason is the Right To Information (RTI) Act. While schools say they do not come under the Act, the UT education department has called them for a hearing seeking explanation on why schools are not providing information under it. However, according to city-based RTI activists, schools do not fall under the domain of the RTI Act, but they are bound to give information if asked by the education department.

Pankaj Chandgothia, an RTI activist, said, "Schools are right when they say that they do not come under RTI Act. Therefore, if anyone needs information from schools, they should approach the district education officer, who is the regulatory head for schools. He will further ask the schools for information and then they will have to give it to the department. The point here is that schools do not come under RTI Act, but the education department does."

He also said the department can ask for any information related to Right to Education Act. "In fact, the education department is supposed to have all the information about the school under Right to Education Act. They are supposed to get self declaration forms filled by the schools," he added.

Chandgothia also informed that RTI information cannot be asked by schools on the basis of the land allotment to them wherein land was given on concessional rates by the Chandigarh administration.

Chanchal Singh, deputy director, school education, also stated that there were certain points under which the schools were bound to provide information to the education department.

A principal of one of the schools which has given information to the department in previous years also agreed that they were bound to give information if asked by the UT education department, though not under RTI.

"Towards the department it is our responsibility but we are not under any liability to give information to general public under the RTI," said Harpreet Kaur, principal Sri Guru Harkrishan School, Sector 38.

In the past, St John's School, Sector 26, St Joseph School, Sector 44, Ryan International, Sector 49, and Sri Guru Harkrishan Model School, Sector 38, have given information to the department. They were asked information under RTI Act earlier, to which they refused but when the department asked for it they provided it to the appellant authority.

The matter has come up recently when the deputy director, school education, called the principal of a private school for a hearing for not providing information asked by an RTI activist.