Education officer closes door on open house

Three months after agreeing to start helpline for parents' grievances and organise meets with school managements, senior official reneges on promise

Education officer closes door on open house

Three months after agreeing to start helpline for parents' grievances and organise meets with school managements, senior official reneges on promise

Three months ago Vidya Shinde, district secondary education officer, had said she would start a helpline and introduce the concept of an open house for addressing parent's grievances at a symposium organised by MiD DAY.

Broken promises: Vidya Shinde (in blue), district secondary education
officer, at the symposium 'School Concerns' organised by MiD DAY on
May 29. File Pic

Not only did she not keep her word, but also said there was no need for any such initiative. In May, MiD DAY had organised a campaign to highlight the irregularities in private schools such as illegal fee hikes, PTA elections and lack of basic facilities to ensure safety of children in schoolbuses.

To conclude the series, MiD DAY had organised a symposium titled 'School Concerns' where the education officer from District Collectorate, Pune Municipal Corporation and school principals and parents were present to discuss their issues in an open forum.

Shinde had then promised to start a helpline for parents to lodge their grievances and maintain a logbook for resolving issues within a stipulated time frame. Besides that she had also promised an 'open house' for parents.

"Every six months we have a meeting with principals but parents aren't part of it. From now on, we can have one member from each school's PTA to be part of it. We will have this meeting twice a year," Shinde had promised on May 29.

Three months have elapsed since she made the promise, and no action has been taken yet. When MiD DAY contacted Shinde in June and July, she said that she could not implement her words as her staff was on leave and she was short of people to carry out the task.

Contacted again in August, Shinde however displayed reluctance to even carry out her word. "The law has now been passed in the legislative assembly to take care of fee hikes in private schools. Many issues like PTA, facilities will be covered under that. So, I don't know what is the need to come up with an open house or helpline now, as issues will be resolved on their own. Anyway, I'm too busy for all these things," said Shinde.

Parents who were part of MiD DAY's symposium said they expected nothing better as they were used to the education officials going back on their word. "We expected that this time something concrete would happen as they had made the promise in the presence of media. Nothing affects them and though disappointed, we aren't surprised," said Anil Mahajan, parent of a student of Sinhagad Springdale School.

School principals said they were doing their bit to improve communication. "We regularly meet parents of our students and they have no complaints as we have a common meeting where all issues are resolved amicably. We would have, however, liked to be part of the open house and encourage other schools to follow suit as some parents' concerns were genuine," said Nalini Sengupta, principal of Vidya Valley School.