Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Apr 12: Call it lack of check from the side of Education Department or total lack of interest, some private schools have taken the entire Education system for granted and converted class room into poultry farm, by admitting more than 60 students in a class.
This is an open secret that one of the leading schools of these Islands has started this trend in Andaman and by admitting more and more students per class (section) making open mockery of RTE Act, which says that in a classroom there can’t be more than 35 students.
The Act also says that in case the numbers of students are more, school should open more sections and provide more teachers.
Clearly to keep the school running cost low and earn very high profit the said school is admitting more than 60 students in classroom and making the children sit like poultry chickens. For these excess students the school has neither provided sufficient toilet block nor extra teachers.
“With so many students in a single class it is impossible even to make eye ball contact with each and every student in one period. How the teachers will take care of all the students,” said an angry parent.
Adding to the plight of parents the said school is charging Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 10,000 for every student for their admission in class I, despite of the fact the students have completed KG-I from the same school.
“The noble profession of imparting Education has become a shameful business in Andaman, it seems,” the parent said.
But why the Education Department is quit? Actually the Department is well aware of this situation and when Mr. R Devdas was the Director of Education Department he had held a number of meetings with representatives of Private Schools urging them to keep the number of students to 35 per class but some private schools preferred to differ.
Even now the Education Department knows very well about this shameful business practice in some private schools but for reasons best known to the Department, no action has been initiated against the schools.
Recently when Andaman Sheekha Editor spoke to the Secretary-cum-Director, Mr. D N Singh, he assured Andaman Sheekha comes up with a report or if anyone complaints. But the million dollar question is why can’t the Education Department conducts surprise inspections by its own? Why the Department is waiting for a complaint or media report? This is unwise to wait for parents to complaint as no parents will ever dare to lodge complaint against the school in which their children are studying for obvious reasons.
Hope after this report the Secretary- cum- Director of Education Department will atleast conduct some surprise inspections himself and serious think about cancelling the affiliation if it is found that private schools are violating the norms of RTE Act.
