Sunday, February 15, 2009

Parents protest school fee hike

Sunit Dhawan
Tribune News Service

Gurgaon, February 15

Hundreds of parents of school-going children staged a protest demonstration here today against certain private schools’ move to hike the tuition fee of students. They marched in protest against from the local Ram Lila Ground to the deputy commissioner’s camp office, where they submitted a memorandum to be forwarded to the Haryana Governor, Chief Minister and Education Minister.

Ashok Agarwal, president, All-India Parents Association asserted that the apex court had clearly told the state governments to ensure the provision of education to children as it was their fundamental right.

“Still, there is no proper system in place to check or control the functioning of the privately managed schools and other educational institutions,” he said.

Vashisht Kumar Goyal, president, Millennium Parents Association, Gurgaon, maintained that the government should set up an education commission to regulate the functioning of the private schools once and for all.

“It is high time that the state authorities clarified and implemented a proper education policy which also covers the private schools,” he maintained.

Terming the move on fee hike by certain private schools “illegal and unconstitutional”, The protesting parents stressed that in the absence of a well-defined regulatory mechanism, the private school managements were free to take decisions on their own.

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