Schools seeking donation to be fined 10 times the amount they demand

Schools seeking donation to be fined 10 times the amount they demand
Tue Apr 24, 2012 2:25 am (PDT)
Schools seeking donation to be fined 10 times the amount they demand Parents harrowed by the ever-increasing donation amounts quoted by school officials or touts to ensure their wards' admission can now heave a sigh of relief. Under the Children's Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), the state government has decided to charge errant schools a penalty which is 10 times the amount they ask for.
According to the latest government resolution dated April 21, if any school is caught asking for donation, it will have to appear before a disciplinary committee and will be penalised. A senior education official said, "For children aged between six and 14, collecting capitation fees and donation, conducting interviews and other such things are serious offences under the RTE. Now that the SC has asked the government to implement the act's provisions from this year, we are coming out with rules." Parents can lodge complaints with any of the education authorities - education inspector, deputy director of education; those in rural areas can complain to the ward officers. Action will be taken if the complaint is found to be genuine, the official added.
Currently, schools openly take donation and rarely face any action. "Most schools get away with it because there is lack of concrete evidence, such as receipts," said BD Puri, education inspector, South Zone. "Parents lodging a complaint against a school are often unable to produce any 'proof' that they were asked for donation. Schools rarely give a receipt; often such transactions are conducted verbally. This makes it difficult to determine whether the complaint is genuine." He added that it is hard to take action against schools also because parents do not want to reveal their identity. "We can't do anything if parents do not reveal their identities as we have to lodge a court case against the school concerned. We also have a supervisory mechanism in place that checks on such irregularities at the school level," Puri said. Another issue, according to experts, is that the new provisions apply only to Stds I to VIII, and not to pre-primary schools where the problem is more rampant. "Pre-primary education does not come under our purview, so we can't take action," he said.
URL: http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report_schools-seeking-donation-to-be-fined-10-times-the-amount-they-demand_1679866