Before admitting their children to schools, parents usually run a background check on the institutions. They ask other parents for recommendations, check out the schools’ websites, and have conversations with the schools’ authorities to get a clearer understanding.
In recent days, as many parents found out, their research was not enough, as the government sent notices to hundreds of schools for allegedly falsely claiming to have central board affiliations while they only had State board affiliations.
The lack of means to verify a school’s affiliation has baffled parents. “Most of us go by what they put up in front of the school,” said Shwetha P., a parent from Sunkadakatte.
“If it says Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) or Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), that is what we believe. As parents, quality education is important for us, and when a school has multiple branches and hundreds of students, we assume that it must be good. The recent turn of events has left us all paranoid, but we are also left wondering how to verify the affiliations of schools,” she said.
Display affiliation code
Further, parents want schools to display their affiliation codes on their boards and websites clearly. “Despite a rule that mandates display of the affiliation code on the boards, that’s not happening,” said B.N. Yogananda, President, of Karnataka Private School College Parent Associations coordination committee.
“The parents have no other options to check the status. When a new school is opened, they should run it for five years under State Board. These days, based on certificates obtained by older branches of their schools, they claim central board affiliation for the new branches, too,” he said.
The parents also point towards a possible involvement of officials of the education department in letting schools with false affiliations run. “Without the cooperation of Block Education Officers (BEO) and Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI), and other officials, how could such schools have run for so long? There is a rule that all BEOs should look for and publish a list of such illegal or unregistered schools on the website, but they have not done that,” Mr. Yogananda said.
There is also the worry of students missing out on one academic year if the government shuts down such schools. Parents have started taking transfer certificates but have no idea about the next step.
“To save the future of students who are already enrolled or studying in such schools, appropriate steps should be taken by the government to continue the education of those students,” said Ajay Kamath, State secretary, All India Democratic Students’ Organization (AIDSO).
Another question raised by the parents was why the government or the Education Minister had not issued any clarification in this regard. “More than the money paid, what matters is the future of our children. Would years of their education be discarded, or would they be allowed to continue from where they left off? Would it be considered State board or central board education? There is a lot of confusion,” said Manasa (name changed), a parent.
Awareness campaigns
Parents said that the Department of Public Instruction should start public campaigns and put out a list of schools that are unregistered or have false affiliations. “The DDPIs and BEOs should list out schools in their limits and thereby help parents,” said Mr. Yogananda. The association also demanded that the fee money should be recovered from such schools and paid back to the parents.
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