NGOs step forward to take action against schools flouting RTE rules

Currently, as per the Right to Education (RTE) rules, schools should not follow unnecessary screening processes while admitting children in nursery groups. However most of the schools in Delhi are flouting these rules a lot these days by unnecessarily questioning nursery school kids and their parents at the time of admissions. To bring an end to the misuse of power by schools, a draft proposal has been submitted by Ashok Agarwal, President of an NGO named Social Jurist to the ruling Aam Admi Party in Delhi. In the same lines, the ruling party has received an application from another NGO, VR One Education For All, requesting for changes in the 17th, 24th and 27th sections of the Delhi School Education Act 1973 and 145th Rule of Delhi School Education Rules, 1973. The NGO feels that amendments to these sections would standardise admission and fee structure in schools across Delhi.

What does the draft contain?

According to the draft submitted by Agarwal, schools that conduct nursery admissions for kids below 6 years of age should be banned and imprisoned for a maximum period of 10 years. While speaking to the media, Agarwal stated that his NGO has submitted the draft to the Government with the sole aim of making stricter rules for the 1100 government and 1500 private schools in Delhi.  The draft suggests formation of an exclusive committee (mostly with a retired High Court Judge as Chairman and a chartered accountant and education director as members) to discuss and formulate rules regarding fee structure and curriculum of private schools.

Penalty for flouting rules

Agarwal’s draft proposes that schools found guilty of charging exorbitant fees, would have to be penalised strongly. Additional fees along with 9% interest per month should be returned to the parents by these schools. It also vociferously suggested that schools that were indulged in unethical interviews for nursery kids and those that charged massive fee should be banned with immediate effect and should be given jail imprisonment of 5 years at least along with a fine amount of 5000INR at least.

In addition to the above petitions, the Delhi Government has voluntarily come up with the idea of sending district committee members to schools in their respective districts on surprise checks, so that the real situation in Delhi schools can be easily checked and resolved. Conducting these unannounced checks during school hours would help authorities to get first-hand knowledge about the conduct of the school.