JOIN USAround 25 parents staged a protest in front of the North range–1 Block Education Office (BEO) at Rajajinagar on Friday, asking authorities to take action against a school in the area that allegedly demanded extra money for admission to seats under the 25 per cent quota of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
The parents alleged that the school, East West Academy, Rajajinagar, had sought Rs 25,000 as extra fees, even though their children had got seats under the 25 per cent quota.
“The school was seeking the extra fees for things like computers, music, yoga, books,” said Venkatesh G, parent of a girl who got admission in class one under the quota. This group of parents went to the BEO office where it complained to authorities concerned and submitted a memorandum to the block education officer.
Gopalakrishna, BEO for North range-1, told Deccan Herald that he will issue a notice to the school and wait for two days for it to rectify the mistake, failing which the complaint will be sent to the department of public instruction and action initiated.
Principal of the school Shobha Singh said that though the school had sought Rs 25,000, payment was optional.
“Everyone in the school is paying the amount for various facilities. The students will not get these, if they do not pay the amount. We never said that we will deny any student admission, if this amount is not paid.”
G Nagasimha Rao, convener, RTE Task Force, said: “Till now, we were getting individual complaints. If more parents complain collectively, schools will stop seeking donations and extra fees. Even the BEOs will respond properly,” he said.
Corporal punishment
An alleged incident of corporal punishment was reported from Tapovan High School in Anekal.
A few TV local channels were airing footage of a student being tied to a pillar of the school as punishment. Vani Sharma, principal of the school, said that the footage shown by the channels was about four months old.
“The incident took place quite some time back. Two students of class five were caught fighting and the teacher concerned asked both of them to hold the pillar and resolve their fight. The issue has been blown out of proportion by a disgruntled parent who had an issue with the school for a long time.”