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Latest News |
| 15th
January 2010 / Times of India / Bangalore Edition |
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ICSE, CBSE schools demand their right
Plan To Move Supreme Court Against Quota For Poor
In The Right To Education Bill
Bangalore: The first salvo against the Right to Education
Bill which aims to provide education for all children
below 14 years will be fired by Independent Schools Federation
of India which has over 1,000 ICSE /CBSE schools under
it.
The federation has readied a petition to move the Supreme
Court if the Centre goes ahead and implements the RTE.
“We have already approached one of the leading lawyers
in the Supreme Court to fight our case. We are waiting
for the government to issue the notification. The minute
that happens, we will file the petition in the court,’’
P T Joseph, one of the executive committee members, told
TOI.
According to the Bill, 25% of the seats in private schools
are to be reserved for the economically poor. And this
is the main issue for the schools. “It would deprive
the fundamental right of the private unaided schools and
minority schools to choose the students they want. Thus,
it would “ultravirus the Constitution and be violative
of the basic structure of the Constitution. It would also
violate the fundamental right of equal treatment of child
and equal right to have admission in any school of his
choice if he meets the criteria laid down by the school,
the petition, copy of which is available with TOI, said.
“We are not against the spirit of the Bill. We want
it to be implemented in consultation and in phases so
that schools do not get affected. It is the question of
survival of schools,” Joseph said.
The federation is now on the mission to include more schools
and organisations to support them in the court. “Our
target is 6,500 CBSE schools and 1,700 ICSE schools across
the country. If all the schools unite, we would be able
to do something,” he added.
Organisations like Indian Public School Conference, Association
of Schools for the Indian school Certificate Examination
and Heads of Anglo Indian Schools have already expressed
their support against the Bill, he said.
WHY PRIVATE SCHOOLS ARE UNHAPPY
Most of the schools are unhappy at the thought of government
intervention in their functioning. “Every single
paper would have to go through government officials and
get approved by them. It would be worse than being a government
school,” fumed a trustee member of a prominent school.
He said: “People would start bribing the person
incharge of recommending the children to the school. And,
he would start selling the tickets. Cost is one more area
that the school managements are concerned about. Most
of the schools just make their ends meet. How will they
fend for the new members now? Even if the government says
they will, getting reimbursements would be another problem,”
a principal stated.
The schools in Bangalore belonging to all boards like
CBSE and ICSE and the ones under Karnataka Unaided Schools’
Management Association are expected to meet in the second
week of February to unite for this cause.
THE ARGUMENTS
Bill violates right of private schools to choose the child
they want
It violates right of equal treatment of a child and equal
right to have admission in a school of his choice
It restricts right of a child to free and compulsory education
to neighbourhood schools alone, thereby widening divide
between two classes of people.
Child will have to be admitted in a class appropriate
to his age despite the amount of knowledge he possesses,
which is unreasonable.
It fails in taking care of the pre-school concept.
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