Page 18 - EW July 2021 final

Education News

proved by the incumbent government of a student, his/her details
does not permit government inter- could be accessed from the
vention, which is necessary. Thus our Educational Management
demand to scrap all amendments. Un- Information System (EMIS),
fortunately, this government does not a common online platform
seem interested in enforcing even the connecting schools, teachers
little power awarded to it under the and students, by the transferee
Act. Not even to insist that schools school. However, this directive
submit their financial audits to the is limited to students transfer-
education ministry,” says advocate ring from private to govern-
Anubha Sahai, president of the ment and government aided
Mumbai-based India-wide Parents schools. Students switching
Association. from one private school to
School managements believe that another still need to produce
the structure of the Maharashtra Edu- Chief minister Stalin: playing field tilt TCs.
cational Institutions Act provides par- As a result, the state has
ents sufficient voice — through man- parties with close links to popular witnessed an unusual reverse migra-
datory PTA ECs — to determine the Tamil cinema way back in 1967, has tion of students from fee levying
annual fees of private schools. In the made an impressive start to his first private to free-of-charge government
circumstances, permitting individual innings as chief minister. schools because the Covid pandemic
aggrieved parents to file objections in One of Stalin’s first big decisions has resulted in widespread job and
DFRCs would flood these committees was to appoint a high-powered income losses for parents statewide.
with litigation. Moreover, they claim Economic Advisory Council (EAC) Currently, 5 million students are en-
that despite suffering severe financial comprising globally respected Indian rolled in Tamil Nadu’s 12,419 private
loss during the pandemic shutdown, diaspora economists including Nobel schools of which 10,000 are afford-
most private schools are providing on- laureate Esther Duflo; Dr. Raghuram ably priced budget private schools
line classes to children and granting Rajan (Booth School of Business, (BPS). The new directive making TCs
fee concessions and credit to parents University of Chicago and former optional has tilted the playing field
suffering job or income losses on a RBI governor); Arvind Subramaniam in favour of Tamil Nadu’s 37,217
case-by-case basis. (former chief economic adviser to government and 8,403 government-
Meanwhile private school manage- the Central government) and Jean aided schools which were hitherto
ments in Maharashtra have pinned Dreze (Delhi School of Economics) to experiencing a continuous exodus
their hopes for raising their fees for aid and advise the new DMK govern- to private, especially budget private
2021-22 on the May 3 judgement ment to place the state’s economy schools.
of the Supreme Court in the Indian back on track. In the education space During the past year, nearly
School, Jodhpur Case that manage- heavily disrupted by the Covid pan- “300 of my 1,200 students have
ments are best qualified to determine demic, an initiative to make trans- switched to government-run schools,
tuition and other fees subject to ap- fer certificates (TCs) optional for because their parents have expe-
proval of PTA-ECs. They are hopeful children switching schools has given rienced Covid-related financial
this judgement will become an endur- a huge boost to languishing govern- difficulties. Moreover, fees for the
ing precedent. ment schools. academic years 2019-20 and 2020-
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) Rules framed by the state govern- 21 are overdue as most parents
ment over a decade ago under the haven’t paid their children’s fees.
TAMIL NADU Right of Children to Free and Com- And this year, they are shifting their
Pandemic advantage pulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, wards to government schools,” says
Dennison, founder of Infant Jesus
required students to produce a TC
issued by the transferor school prior Matriculation Higher Secondary
ince it was re-elected to office to the transferee school admitting School, Kalpakkam.
after a hiatus of ten years, them. This was acceptance of a con- K. Radha, founder-principal
Sthe new Dravida Munnetra vention that all fees and dues of the of the Little Oxford Matric Higher
Kazhagan (DMK) government led by transferor school had been cleared. Secondary School, Chennai, affiliated
M.K. Stalin, son of M. Karunani- But under the new directive is- with the Tamil Nadu Board of Sec-
dhi, one of the founders of the party sued on June 22 to all schools, the ondary Education, says that with the
(estb.1949) which initiated uninter- state’s education ministry stated that state government’s recent announce-
rupted rule of Dravidian political by using the Aadhar card number ment that Aadhar or EMIS number

18 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2021