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.