The Indian Express: Ahmedabad: Wednesday, March 21, 2018.
Amid growing
ambiguity over the Gujarat State Self-Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees)
Act, 2017, which seeks to put a cap on the fee of the private schools in the
state, the parents’ associations sought financial accounts and inspection
reports of of 22 self-financed schools under the Right to Information (RTI) Act
from the Ahmedabad District Primary Education Officer (DPEO) on Tuesday. The
parents have sought the information on books of accounts and inspection reports
of the last four years.
The parents
claimed that they were being harassed by schools and forced to pay a higher fee
for their wards to be allowed to sit for final exams. “The mass RTI
applications have been filed at the DPEO since the office is the recognised
body which maintains the records and conducts inspections. Since the state
government is not taking any decision on the fee to be charged and has given a
leeway to schools by allowing them to charge exorbitant fee despite the fee regulation
Act, we initiated the procedure to seek information on our own,” said Amit
Panchal from Waali Swaraj Manch.
Confirming
that he had received these 22 applications, Ahmedabad DPEO Mahesh Mehta said,
“The office will transfer these applications to the concerned schools.”
On submitting
records to the Fee Regulation Committee, Mehta said, “These are the schools
that have not submitted affidavit nor applications to the committees. So, the
RTI application will be transferred to schools.”
“It is
mandatory to submit the details of financial accounts to the DPEO within the
stipulated time frame. Since the DPEO recognises private schools, annual
inspections are conducted by the DPEO. So, please provide the details of the
name of the inspection officer, the designation and the inspection report
submitted with the department,” the applications stated.
Some
prominent schools in the city from where parents have sought these details
include Udgam School, Divine International, R P Vasani, H B Kapadia School at
Gurukul, DPS East, Cosmo International, Tripada International, Calorex, Anand
Niketan in Maninagar, Divyapath Academic Primary School, IDP School and Nirman
High School, Manikrupa High School, Dewan International School, Swaminarayan
International at Ranip, Mahatma Gandhi International School, among others.
On selecting
these schools, Panchal said, “The parents of the children studying in these
schools have filed the RTI application. Thus, these are a few schools whose
information is sought. In the coming days, we are hoping more parents will join
from other schools as well.”
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