Unrecognised schools go scot-free in Medipally

Medipally: Ravi Kiran is a worried parent as his son is studying in an unrecognised school in Medipally near Uppal. He is to appear for Board exams next year and the school authorities say that they would facilitate to appear for exams with another school. Likewise, there are hundreds of parents who are literally in tenterhooks. 

This is only one of the issues with unrecognised schools. High fee, selling books and insisting parents not to buy books and uniforms elsewhere are the other problems. With practically no supervision, the schools are breaking all norms, says Ravi. Private schools without recognition are posing threat to the future of students and looting their parents in the name of tution fee, says Umakanth, a parent. There are 91 recognised schools in the mandal and 42 are unrecognised.

Local residents allege that the officials mere issue show-cause notices but there is no follow-up action. Apart from unrecognised ones, some schools have been charging parents heavily in the name of tution fee and books.  Parents complaining that schools charging fee to LKG at Rs 20,000 and books at Rs 3,000. When contacted, MEO Narasimha Reddy said that they seized three schools in the mandal. He said that private and corporate schools should sell government prescribed text books.

If the schools were found selling other books and school uniforms severe action would be taken, the MEO warned. Narasimha Reddy also warned schools not to put pressure against parents to buy their own printed books. He also listed out the names of unauthorised schools. He lamented that they were facing threats at the time of school inspections. We were not in a position to take severe action against them. The MEO called upon the parents to join their wards in government schools which were maintaining quality standards in education.

BY Orsu Ramesh