The State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) is unnecessarily interfering in the matters of private schools and education- issues which are not related to the commission, alleged the president of Principals Progressive Schools’ Association (PPSA) Prem Kashyap.
Addressing the media at the Press Club, members of the association alleged that the managers of various private schools in the state are being harassed by SCPCR.
Kashyap said that children whose parents’ monthly income is less than Rs 4,500 are given admission under Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act.
As per the education department, school management can ask the parents of the child availing education under RTE to show the income certificate of the family.
However, when the management of Doon World School asked for the income certificate of the students studying under RTE, SCPCR served them notice for alleged mental harassment of the child and the parents.
“How can the child rights commission serve the notice to the management of the school on the basis of the complaints of some parents who showed wrong details of their monthly income during the admission of their children? When the detail of income is found wrong by the school,
the parents have to pay the full fees of the child. Even if after a few months or years, the monthly income of parents increases, they will have to submit the fee in the school since the time their salary increased. We are talking about the parents who do not submit the proper fee of the school in spite of being financially well off,†said Kashyap.
The members of PPSA also alleged that repeated interference by SCPCR chairperson Usha Negi is because of her extensive political interest in the state. According to them, Negi recently sent a notice to a school, when the school management denied admission to a child.
Kashyap said that every school has its own criteria for giving admission to children and there is no provision in the government that says a school cannot deny admission to any child. The notice sent by Negi is completely pointless, he said.
Doon International School chairman DS Mann and other PPSA members were also present in Press conference.
