MARGAO, JUNE 14
The All Goa Unaided Schools Parents Association (AGUSPA) has warned the Education department against playing with the sentiments and anguish of parents, who toil hard to educate their children and refused to be exploited.
The Association has also asked the Director of Education to scrutinise the statements of accounts submitted by these schools and further audit the same before granting any approvals as per the Goa School Education Act 1984.
Association Secretary Orlando Pacheco has accused the Education Department of adopting a casual attitude towards the concern of parents with regards to the matter of fee hike in the unaided schools in Goa. He said the circular dated 16th April 2010 issued to the schools with regards to the fees is misleading and bound to create confusion and has been issued without understanding the ground realities existing in the State and without any details or directions.
Association Chairman Nisser Dias has taken strong exception to the report filed by Deputy Director of Education Anil Powar to the government, stating that only a few parents have filed complaints on the fee hike. “The Deputy Director of Education has made the statement inspite of several protests being raised from several quarters by parents. This only goes to show that Powar is more inclined towards the school managements, which are usually headed by industrialists and businessmen and not the parents”, Dias said.
He said the fee of Rs 1350 pm for primary section and Rs 1800 pm for the middle and secondary section recommended by the Pednekar Committee and accepted by the Government is based on an assumption that there is an average of 25 students in the primary section and 30 students in secondary section per division or class after calculating the sixth pay scale salaries to teachers. “”In reality, however, there are almost 40 students per class or divisions in most of theses 148 unaided schools in the State which are usually English medium schools. Therefore, the fees per month in most of these schools should be much less then the fee recommended by the Pednekar Committee and thereafter accepted by the Government”, Dias said.
He further pointed out that the fees will be much lesser then those proposed by some of these schools which had asked for approval to fees upto Rs 1800 pm month for primary section and upto Rs 2500 pm for middle section and secondary section.
Meanwhile, Association President Orlando Pacheco has urged the teachers community who are to receive the salaries on par with Government teachers as per directives from the central government be vigilant and ensure that these schools who will be hiking the fees upto the set limit, as per the recommendation of the Pednekar Committee get their salaries as per the scale they deserve.
He further said the DoE should also ensure that the teachers are actually paid as per the scale recommended as the same will be collected from the parents.
The association has further appealed to the Education Minister and the State government to bring in legislation and enact an Act on the lines of Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of collection of fees) Act 2009, which was upheld by the division bench of the Madras High Court, dismissing all writ petitions challenging the validity of the said Act.
The Association said such a law is necessary to put an end to the donation, capitation fees, profiteering and commercialization of education and exorbitant fees resulting in exploitation of students and parents by the managements of these unaided schools in the state.
