Parents, teachers angry

Updated on: Friday, May 27, 2011

The series of postponements hasn’t gone down well with parents and teachers. Arundhati Chavan, President of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) forum, said, “First, we were told that the MLAs were on leave. Now they are telling us that the authorities are unable to fix the venue. These are mere tactics to delay the act so that they don’t have to implement it this year."

Jayant Jain, president of Forum for fairness in Education, says, “We were assured that the Act will be implemented from this academic year, but now even the first meeting has not been held. It will take at least another year for the act to be implemented and schools will get the chance to hike the fees yet again.” Vinod Menon, a parent, says, “The delay is yet another tactic by the government to deceive us.”

TIMELINE:

OCTOBER 2009: Kumud Bansal panel first recommended measures for regulation of school fees

DECEMBER 2010: School education minister Rajendra Darda, assures the state assembly that a draft bill for the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Collection of fees) Act 2011, would be tabled on day one of the budget session in March/ April

FEBRUARY 2011: The department releases a draft of fee regulation and seeks views from parents, management, schools and all other stakeholders

MARCH/ APRIL: Contrary to the claims, the draft bill is not tabled till the last week of the budget session. A special cabinet meeting clears the draft bill on April 18 and the same is tabled in the House on April 19

MAY: The government posts the modified draft on its website for feedback. A 26-member joint committee from the state legislative assembly and legislative council is appointed to hear opinions of the stakeholders, including parents’ organisations and school managements. Hearings scheduled for May 24 and 25 are postponed.

Parents, teachers angry

More Education news