Gurgaon parents protest hike in school fees

Parents of students in private schools of the city protested against the fees hike, on Sunday. As many as 200 parents gathered at Huda City Centre in the morning, demanding a rollback of the fees hike.

Parents alleged that schools are not adhering to the Haryana School Education Act 1995 & Rules 2003.Parents said they went on the protest as they are fed up with government apathy on the fee hike issue.

“We want compliance of CBSE affiliation norms by schools, more transparency in the audit process and better focus on parent-teacher associations and safety of children on campus,” Bharat Bhushan, a parent, said.

“For this academic session, there was a hike of 15%-17%; we had protested on the issue earlier and the school had rolled back 2%. The hike is not justified,” Pawan Diwan, a protesting parent, said.

Parents said they plan to approach the district education officials and obtain Form 6, which has the fee details and financials of the school. They will then approach the Fee and Fund Regulatory Committee and demand a fees audit, if irregularities are found.

Schools can charge fees under five different subheads -- admission fees, tuition fees, sports fees, people fund and science fund. “Schools have opened their own shops through which they sell items such as books and uniforms, at a premium, and never answer when we ask them to justify the overheads,” Anuj Chauhan, a parent, said.

Parents said they are upset with the state government for allowing at least four city schools to go ahead with the fees hike by staying an order of the Fee and Fund Regulatory Committee (FFRC). The FFRC had, on May 2, stayed any fees hike by schools until the final audit results were declared.

According to the rules, Haryana schools can charge tuition fees and 3 funds (Red Cross fund, child welfare fund & sports fund).

“Fees hike is a problem when parents are kept out of the decision making body. The PTA (parents teachers association) of a school is constituted at the order of the school, without allowing parents to select their representatives. Any parent who files a complaint with the school is never considered for the PTA body,” Harish Ahuja of Sector 27 said.

After several complaints by parents, a regulatory committee was formed last year to audit nine private schools, following an order by the Fee and Fund regulatory committee.

In February, an audit by the district administration found that four private schools in Gurgaon overcharging. The team had audited seven schools, of which four were found violating section 198 of Haryana State Education rules, which states that schools can only charge education fees.

The district education officer declined to comment, starting that the matter is being looked into by the state.

Colonel (retired) Pratap Singh, director of CCA School in Sector 4 and president of HPSC(Haryana progressive school conference) said, “Parents want to admit their children in the best schools, being fully aware of the fees structure, but after admissions, don’t want to pay. Hardly 10% of parents who have issues with the fees.”

source: www.hindustan.com

Gurgaon School Admissions 2017-18

Each year parents queue up in front of schools armed with some little information about the reputation of the school, a form and some sort of formal payment just to be able to enter the hallowed portals that will take their tender toddlers to success in the world. However, for the academic session 2017-18 schools in gurgaon have started nursery admission in a departure from the schedule followed last year, leaving parents confused. The admission process, which usually commences around mid-August, has already started in some schools and others are also expected to start the process soon. Parents complain that absence of an academic calendar for schools in Gurgaon is landing them in troubles.

Schools such as The HDFC School, The Millennium School, Delhi Public School Sushant Lok, Lotus Valley International School and Kunskapskollan have already started their admission process. Scottish High International, Ridge Valley School will open the registration process on August 1. Other schools, including DPS Sector 45 and Ryan International School, are also likely to start the process by mid-August.

Education experts suggest that the early start of admission by some schools is due to growing competition among them. A large part of the issue in nursery admissions is around school autonomy. Delhi seems to be leading this battle, but it was pretty much sure that the same issues will travel to other states too. The question here is should schools select their students? Should schools have autonomy in deciding the criteria for admission to their portals. The answer seems to be an obvious yes in case of the private schools.

Every year, more and more schools with better infrastructure and technology come ups in Gurgaon. These institutes give a strong competition to the existing ones, which is why schools want to start admission before others. On the other hand, schools say that they have started early admission to give more time to the parents to complete the formalities. However, for the comfort of the parents, the schools are providing forms both offline and online.

In a perfect world there would be enough nursery and school places where all children would join in small groups and be loved and nurtured as they learn. We do not live in a perfect world and there is a shortage of quality education places. From where we are, some competition for scarce seats is inevitable. Even if government schools were up to standard – and there seems to be evidence that many have slipped – there are not enough seats for all.

And the battle continues – what is the best way to allocate nursery seats? Who should get the first chance and who can be left out? Is access to excellence in education a game of chance?

source:examswatch.com/parents-baffled-as-gurgaon-schools-start-nursery-admissions-early/

Nursery admission: Delhi HC upholds interim stay on age limit notification

The Delhi high court on Tuesday upheld its 5 February order which had stayed a notification by the Delhi government fixing four years as the upper age for nursery admissions in private unaided schools in the National Capital Region.

A bench comprising Chief Justice G. Rohini and Jayant Nath found no fault with the interim stay issued by justice Manmohan. Subsequently, he had also passed an interim order that said private unaided school managements are entitled to full autonomy in administration including the right to admit students.

“All children above the age of four years who are desirous of taking nursery admission in private schools for academic year 2016-17 shall be entitled to apply on or before 9 February,” the order had noted.

“The interim stay is rightly issued,” the two-judge bench said on Monday while delivering the judgement.

According to the notification issued by the directorate of education on 18 December last year, the upper age limit for nursery, pre-primary and Class I was set at four, five and six years, respectively.

The order was challenged by way of a bunch of petitions filed by minors who claimed that the impugned order was “arbitrary and unconstitutional” and sought its quashing.

The main case on the legal validity of the government notification will be heard on 18 April.

source: www.livemint.com

AAP government takes baby steps to revamp education sector...

A dilapidated building with fans ready to fall off, broken switchboards, and rickety desks and chairs has become synonymous with government-run model schools in Delhi.

Of the at least 957 schools in dire need of attention, only 54 have been selected for infrastructure improvements. However, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government says it is working to improve the sorry situation and fulfil its promise made during the election campaign.

A 106% increase in the allocation of funds for education in the last budget should ensure there is no paucity of funds.

“By the end of the year, the model schools would be ready. We have been told that once this set is corrected there would be a trickledown effect and help in improving other schools,” said BK Sharma, principal of Shaheed Hemu Kalani Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in Lajpat Nagar II.

However, the absence of 500 new schools and 20 new colleges — as promised before a fledgling AAP stormed into power last year — will continue to be a sore spot for the state government.

It is not that the government isn’t working towards it — construction of 25 new schools and 8,000 additional rooms at existing schools has started and is expected to be completed by 2016-17, but the numbers lag behind target.

“In one year, 25 new schools... (are) still being constructed. The government should know that they just have four years left now. Next election is going to depend on fulfilled promises,” said Amar Singh, an auto rickshaw driver.

But the government remains optimistic.

“Improving the infrastructure was necessary but it is not sufficient. Henceforth, focus would be on improving quality — by capacity-building of teachers, competency-based learning, providing onsite support and improving learning levels in children,” said Atishi Marlena, special adviser to the state education minister.

Educationists feel this is not right approach to improve the quality of education.

“I have seen the way learning levels of Class 9 students were tested. By asking basic mathematics questions on division, different levels of children have been decided. Such division is completely undemocratic and discriminatory. Consulting organisations like Teach for India for improving schools is not going to help,” said Anita Rampal, an educationalist.

Another point of contention is the government’s proposal to scrap the no-detention policy — where a student cannot be held back in the same class even if he fails an exam.

Nonetheless, the slew of bills to improve the education sector, including the Fee Regulation Bill and amendment to the Delhi Education Bill to bring transparency to nursery admission, are being touted as “AAP’s education revolution”.

The state is also expected to move forward with its plan to do away with management quota in public schools — after failing with private schools, which moved court and the order was quashed.

The first year in office for the AAP has largely been about transforming primary education in Delhi, but the challenge ahead will be secondary education.

The government successfully launched the Delhi Education Guarantee Scheme — under which loans guaranteed by the state are provided to students for higher education — and will be looking to find a viable way to introduce double-shifts in Delhi University colleges to deal with the increasing number of students.

“Our focus is now also more towards skill development and building a sports university,” said Marlena.

source: www.hindustantimes.com