The Hindu : Donations: Action taken against 15 schools

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 17, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Donations: Action taken against 15 schools

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore July 16. Fifteen schools in Bangalore, including those with a name, are in the dock for demanding and collecting donations from the parents of their children. Of them, five are facing criminal cases and 10 others have been served with show-cause notices.

Disclosing this in the Legislative Assembly today, the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, B.K. Chandrashekar, said that action against the schools had been taken under a circular issued on April 28, 2003 under the State Education Act.

The minister, who was replying to K.N. Subba Reddy (BJP member from Jayanagar), said that criminal proceedings had been initiated against the following five schools: Bangalore High School, Sudarshan Vidyamandir (Jayanagar), Holy Christ School, St. Catherine School (Cottonpet), and Goodwill Primary and High School (Fraser Town). Charges against their managements had been filed in the courts concerned.

Dr. Chandrashekar said that show-cause notices had been issued to the following 10 schools: Indira Priyadarshini School, (J.P. Nagar), Aurobindo Memorial School ( Padmanabhanagar), St. Paul's School (Jayanagar), Carmel School (Jayanagar), Innisfry School (Jayanagar), Mary Immaculate School (Wilson Gardens), Cambridge English Primary and High School (Yelahanka), Oxford English Primary and High School (Bettadahalsoor), Goodwill Girls' High School (Fraser Town), and St. Aloysius High School (Cox Town). The minister said that action had been taken against the schools after the district regulatory authority inspected the institutions.

Mr. Subba Reddy said that donations had become a menace. All private schools were collecting them in the name of contributions to development fund, although they had given an undertaking to the Government not to collect donations. The only exception was perhaps the National High School in Basavangudi.

The minister said that though everyone spoke against donations, very often influential persons were intervening when the Education Department sought to take action against the erring managements. The members should refrain from interference.

When the senior BJP member, S. Suresh Kumar, demanded to know what steps the Government had taken to tackle the menace, Dr. Chandrashekar said that it was difficult to check it.

Fundamental issues were involved, and one of them was the craze for English-medium education.

Turning the tables on the members, the minister said that his two children had studied in the Kannada medium, and asked if any of them could make such a claim.

Dr. Chandrashekar told B.N. Bachche Gowda (All India Progressive Janata Dal) that there were 7,800 vacancies in the posts of primary school teachers, and 3,788 in the high schools.

The teachers would be appointed on the basis of a common entrance test, he said.

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