Dinesh Kamath's news item 'School managements, students and parents should behave themselves' that was published in Newsband

School managements, students and parents should behave themselves

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: There have been many cases in Navi Mumbai where the parents of the school students had differences of opinions with the school managements. If this type of incidents continue what will be the plight of the students? Both the school management and parents should give a thought to this.

Just recently about a 100 students of Vidya Prasarak Mandal (VPM) school were denied entry to the school for non-payment of fees because the parents of these students were against the fee hike staged by the school management. The parents informed the Education officers from Thane and Navi Mumbai as well as police officials. Parents also assembled at the school gate.

Thane education officials asked the management to allow the students to attend classes and find alternate means to solve the dispute. As per the RTE Act, students cannot be denied entry. The Education officer promised that a probe would be initiated into this dispute.

The parents even approached the child rights commission to intervene in the dispute but the latter refused owing to a high court order earlier.

This was not the first time that this school had hiked the fees. They had done the same thing last year too in spite of ‘Parent Teacher Association’ not having approved it.

Here is another similar case. The students of VPM School, Airoli were made to wait outside their school gate for nearly an hour as the fee hike dispute between parents and the management continued. The management relented only after education officers from the zilla parishad issued notices. It was decided that the inquiry committee would be set up by the deputy director and the decision they would arrive at should be accepted not only by the school management but even by the parents.

The parent teacher association (PTA) in Nerul’s St Xavier’s High School and Junior College had threatened to file a contempt petition against the Thane Education officer for disobeying the high court’s order which had asked him to resolve the school’s change in management through hearing within six weeks of the order. The high court had directed the education officer to conduct a hearing of the trustees, petitioner and other persons including principal and submit a report within six weeks. But the education officer didn’t obey the court’s order.

However, the education officer convened the hearing after the date of submission of report had expired and they just recorded the statement of all the stakeholders.

The school’s functioning hadn’t been smooth ever since the issue of fraudulent dealing by the earlier trust, in 1985, cropped up. The old management allegedly transferred the school trust to another party, keeping the rules and regulations aside. They used an identical name to cheat City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), which owns the land. This provoked CIDCO authorities and they filed an FIR with the Nerul police station for the alleged fraudulent. The issue finally reached the high court and the court directed the Thane Education officer to sort out the issue through a proper hearing and submit a report. But what is shocking is the career of 6,200 students was at stake as the change in management of the school was not done as per rule.

There are schools in Navi Mumbai which fail to maintain basic sanitation and hygiene. Access to clean and well-maintained toilets is a basic requirement, within educational institutions. This aspect often gets neglected. In some private schools, students refrain from going to washroom as it is not cleaned regularly. The other aspect is purification system for drinking water. There should be a water purification plant in schools and that should be maintained as well, so students get clean, potable water. The Education Department of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) went to the extent of threatening these schools’ management that if the general hygiene was not maintained, the schools would be issued notices.

Most private schools in Navi Mumbai do have a very good sanitation system since the monitoring by NMMC is commendable. In one of the schools, in fact, lakhs of rupees are spent on sanitation and hygiene. The school's washrooms are cleaned with disinfectant three times a day. This proves that such schools genuinely care for their students.

NMMC had also been playing an important role in this matter by cracking down on lax school facilities. It went to the extent of cutting the salaries of the workers or contractor who are tasked with maintaining general hygiene in civic schools and who failed in their task.

It is the duty of Education Department of NMMC to pay due attention to the sanitation facilities within both private and civic run schools.

The good news is that the department officials and the employees under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) promised to not only focus on administration work but also keep an eye on the conditions of washrooms. Parents were also encouraged to bring their concerns to the notice of the department. Managements of schools were threatened that they would be made answerable to the department.

There should be a system which should ensure that NMMC schools have clean washrooms and heavy penalties are levied in cases where the standard is not maintained. Daily inspections in every school should be conducted. Budget allocated for this purpose should be adequate.

The dispute between parents and school management had even taken place on the sports ground i.e. at the Fr Agnel basketball court. Agitated over the disqualification of their wards’ team, angry parents took over a basketball court in Fr Agnel Sports Complex in Vashi. Stalling the finals of the under-14 girls tournament, parents of students from Vibgyor high school, Goregaon, parked themselves in the middle of the court for two hours before local police intervened. Vibgyor was disqualified by the Districts Sports Office (DSO) on the ground that it fielded students from more than one board. This is the height of competitiveness, where players are sitting at home and their parents are hitting the court. The sports department of the school was of the opinion that these parents are defeating the very spirit of sports.

There was still another case where police had to be called in to the Gold Crest High school in sector-29, Vashi, after parents protesting a fee hike refused to leave the school premises until the management agreed to call a meeting of the parent teachers association (PTA). The policemen asked the parents and the school administration to resolve the matter amicably.

Such constant disputes between parents and school management will only prove detrimental to the career of the students. In larger interest of the students both the school management and parents should display maturity and solve whatever problems they have between them in a more disciplined manner so that the students are not affected in any way. Such disputes are become so common in Navi Mumbai that one feels bad for the students who ultimately become the losers. It is the duty of both school management and the parents to set an example to these students by solving problems in a more civilized manner since after all, these students are bound to be the parents and teachers of the future and they should be taught right from now the right way to settle such minor and petty disputes.