SPF hails general meeting of PTA for Auckland House School

Student Parent Forum hailed the general meeting convened by Auckland House School Shimla on May 18 2022 for formation of PTA.  The forum has sought from the Director of Higher Education that on the same lines, PTA should be formed by calling the general meetings of other private schools in the entire state.  The forum has demanded immediate issue of direction  from the Director of Higher Education for the formation of PTA. Manch’s convener Vijendra Mehra and member Vivek Kashyap have demanded a ban on heavy fees by forming PTAs in private schools through general meetings.  He has warned the Director of Higher Education that if he does not immediately issue orders regarding ban on general meetings, PTA formation and heavy fees as promised to the delegation of Student Parent Forum on 7th April 2022, then the forum would again Protest before the education department. He said that it has been more than a month since the Director of Education has submitted the demand letter to stop the arbitrariness of private schools, but no orders have been issued regarding PTA and fees.  During this, the forum officials have had many talks with the education officers, but despite this, the order is not issued, it is clear that the state government and the education officers are in collusion with the private school managements.  Instead of giving justice to six and a half lakh students studying in private schools and their about one million parents, the state government is cheating them.  He said that the private school managements are continuously disobeying the orders of the Directorate of Education for the year 2018 and 2019.  They are neither conducting general meetings of parents nor forming PTAs.  In order to stop the arbitrary loot of private schools, only after the continuous agitation of the parents, the Director of Higher Education, following the guidelines of the Right to Education Act, 2009 and the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2014, organized the PTA in December 2018 by organizing the General House.  The formation was made mandatory.  In this order, PTA formation was made mandatory before March 15 by holding a general meeting in every private school.  In the context of private schools, these orders of the Director of Higher Education are gathering dust and the private school management is continuing the arbitrary loot.  Had these orders been implemented, the parents could have been relieved by the increase in fees by 25 to 50 percent in the last three years, but the silence of the government and the education department on the loot of private schools is telling everything.