JOIN USThe Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued a show cause notice to an international school in the City for allegedly flouting norms of the Board by facilitating private coaching classes for competitive exams during school hours and for allegedly harassing students by delaying issue of transfer certificates.
The school in question, Gear Innovative International School, has been directed to give explanations for numerous complaints against the management by parents.
The parents of three students studying in class XI in the school approached the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) alleging that the school has been illegally holding tuition classes outsourced to private companies, during school hours.
One of the students, Priya (name changed) who enrolled in the school for class XI (for the academic year 2011-12) found that the students were divided into two groups - those who had joined coaching classes and the others who did not wish to be part of the competitive exam coaching.
Allegedly, the school had been dividing students on this basis and those who had joined coaching classes were sent out of the classroom with no one to monitor them. In a complaint to the KSCPCR, Priya’s parents have stated that their daughter was subject to harassment by a few students on one such occasion when the students were left without the teachers’ supervision.
The parents have also accused the school principal of turning a cold shoulder when they approached the school asking them to intervene and counsel the students.
The other student Lavanya (name changed) who was part of the coaching classes group soon found that the coaching was not up to the mark. Three months into the academic year in October, she stopped attending school.
TC refused
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Lavanya’s father Ramakrishna said the school refused to refund the fee or issue transfer certificate. After much delay, they received the TC in January 2012.
By this time, it was too late to join any other school and Lavanya, a science student, had to change her stream of study completely as commerce was the only subject she got a seat for, later.
In the other student Priya’s case, she lost an entire year with the school delaying the TC.
“My daughter had gone into depression and I had to constantly monitor her safety,” said her father Yestee Antony. The parents also accused the school management of collecting varied amounts of fee from students ranging between Rs 70,000 and Rs 1,30,000 for the academic year. Not only this, they were allegedly threatened by the school when they approached them for transfer certificates.
Based on the complaint given by the parents, the KSCPCR sought an action report from the chairman of the CBSE.
In March this year, the CBSE Regional Officer D T Sudarshana Rao and his team made a surprise visit to the school and reported that the school had been employing same teaching faculty for both Central syllabus classes XI and XII and for the State board PU classes.
Also, the school had been conducting coaching classes in co-ordination with private companies, during school hours. The officials also reported that there was every reason to presume that the allegations of delay in issue of TC were true as the school had taken off the names of these students from the attendance register ever since they stopped attending classes.
In June, 2012 the child protection commission passed an order that the school had wronged the students and hence had to not only give the parents written apologies, but also partially refund the fee after deducting fee for five months (till when the students attended school) and pay Rs 25,000 as compensation for harassment.
The school was also directed to comply with the orders within a month (from June 16, 2012) and the CBSE was asked to immediately initiate proceedings to withdraw the affiliation of the school.
Parents of the students who spoke to Deccan Herald said the school has not complied with any of the directions and they have not received the compensation till date. CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi assured to look into the matter. The school management was not available for comments.