Indian
Express: New Delhi: Thursday, 18 September 2014.
Following a
complaint from an NGO, the state school education department has issued notices
to five elite schools in south Mumbai for appointing and allowing principals
and teachers to continue to hold their posts in violation of the retirement age
regulations.
A complaint
filed by NGO Buland Chhawa has alleged that the principals and teachers of the
five south Mumbai schools continue to hold their posts despite having crossed
the stipulated retirement age of 58 years.
The complaint
states that the five schools Cathedral and John Conon at Fort, Activity High at
Peddar Road, Bombay Scottish at Mahim, St Mary’s ICSE at Mazgaon and Diamond
Jubilee school at Mazgaon have flouted the norms of the Maharashtra Employees
of Private Schools (MEPS)(Conditions of Service) Regulation Act,1977, which is
applicable to all private schools.
Nana Kute
Patil of Buland Chhawa, who filed the complaint, said, “Many non-state board
schools are in the practice of appointing retired people as principals. I had
filed an RTI query on the same with 39 private non-state board schools. The
education department sent the first notice to them on January 14. However, no
action was taken against the school thereafter. Now, they have sent a fresh
notice to them on August 4.”
As per the
details provided by the education department to an RTI query, the current age
of Meera Isaac, principal of Cathedral and John Connon school, is 67. Perin
Bagli, principal of Activity High School, is 65 years old while and Shobha
Dove, principal of Diamond Jubilee High School, is 59. “The principal of Bombay
Scottish has retired now, so the notice is no more applicable to them. However,
we are still verifying the details of three teachers of Bombay Scottish who
have crossed the retirement age,” said B B Chavan, education inspector of south
zone.
The schools
says the MEPS Act is only applicable to the state board schools, and not to
them “We are an unaided private minority school affiliated to ICSE board and
hence MEPS Act is not applicable to us. This seems to be a case of vested
interests. In fact, there are many schools across the city which have
principals over 58 years of age,” said the principal of one of the five schools
on the condition of anonymity.
Bagli said,
“We have already approached the school education minister and senior officials.
The MEPS is a very old Act and and its rules are outdated. It cannot be applied
to unaided private minority schools. There are several High Court and Supreme
Court orders that say that the state government cannot interfere in the
functioning of private schools which do not get any aid or assistance from the
government.”
However,
Chavan maintained that all the schools in Maharashtra were supposed to follow
the rules under the MEPS Act.
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