PIL asks for action against schools

NGO's petition in high court says it has evidence of illegal pre-admission tests

NGO's petition in high court says it has evidence of illegal pre-admission tests

A Mumbai-basedu00a0 Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE), has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) asking for action against private schools that conduct pre-admission tests.

The PIL filed in the Bombay High Court on Thursday said the NGO had evidence that private schools conducted interviews of students and also had written tests for admission to their pre-primary section. The petition mentioned that many private unaided schools had conducted interviews of not only the prospective students but also their parents.

In February, MiD DAY had published a series of articles pointing out how private schools in the city violated various sections of the Right to Education Act (RTE) Act. MiD DAY had pointed out how schools were taking donations in name of development funds, conducting interviews and written tests, and subjecting parents to scrutiny before granting admission.

In its PIL, FFE has said that all this is in direct violation of the RTE Act, which clearly mentions that there shall be no screening whatsoever in any manner of students or their parents for the purpose of granting admission.
Jayant Jain, president, Forum for Fairness in Education, said, "The clauses of RTE have been violated by most schools by screening children or parents. Besides, we have also stated that schools extort money from the parents in context of donations which ranges from Rs 25,000 to Rs 20 lakh at the time of admission for pre-primary."

The PIL also blames government authorities for inaction despite repeated complaints, including to the school education secretary, about violations. It states that officials refused to intervene or take any action against school authorities stating that the pre-primary section neither comes under state government nor under the civic body.

Jain said, "We has pointed out the issue to various government organisation but none took any action. We have therefore filed a petition in the high court so that proper action is taken against the schools."