Effectively, the schools affiliated with CBSE must not charge any fees from a single girl child. In case of two girl children belonging to a family, each must be given a 50% fee waiver. The schools will lose affiliation if they do not conform to this norm. The schools are not going to be compensated for this loss by the Govt.
Most of the CBSE schools across India are run by private educational trusts. My daughter studies in one such school. (Heck, she is a single girl child as of now!) They depend on the fee income from the students. I know of most of my daughter's classmates. I would reckon that at least about 50% of the girls have no siblings. So in effect, assuming a 50-50 male-female split in new admissions, her school would lose 25% of the school fees! Or, they would have to increase the fees for others by 25%.
I can't understand which idiot in the CBSE thought of this scheme.
If the government wants to encourage education for girls, let them pay the money for this - from our tax earnings. Do not arm twist school managements into providing this free education. I doubt if this kind of random ruling can withstand challenge in a court of law.
This is farcical. This could also be a nightmare for the schools in terms of implementation. To quote The Hindu article:
The `single girl' status can be accepted based on a simple affidavit from the parent and inform the parents that in case the affidavit is found false, the school can take action and the Board will consider withholding certificates.Suppose the certificates were issued and then the affidavid was found to be false? Ok, consider this issue. A girl child is allowed to write the final examination and before the certificate is issued, the parents have been found to have given a false certificate. The board withholds the certificate. The girl contests this in the court saying that the certificate is given for her ability in the examinations, not her parents' honesty. The correct procedure should be that if the affidavit is found to be false, the parents would be liable to pay the fees with interest and penalty. Now who do they owe this money to? The school or CBSE? Who will go and collect the money? What if the parents refuse to pay up claiming they are broke?
Good intentions and crap implementation. I hope this move is put to rest very quickly and the person who thought of this fired for incompetence.
Do you know how much private schools rob the people? It is ridiculous toi call this a ridiculous move. I is a good move. How badly it will be implemented cannot be used as a reason to diss the move. Thge schools will have to be MADE to behave. There is no other way. You cannot not implement something as important and as necessary as this just because you think it's financially unviable. If that is the logic of rule making, you may as well not have any. The girl-child needs support, and forceful support at that. The schools better fall in line. Note, this is one of the most effective ways of solving another problem India is ignoring: the fast diminishing number of girl children in this country.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Badri, for covering a lot more of this issue. I too think this is just plain crazy. Private schools have entered this territory of primary and secondary education only because the public schools are inadequate (in numbers as well as quality). Tying them into such silly regulatory knots is truly horrible.
ReplyDeleteHi Badri,
ReplyDeleteWhile everyone is debating the free clause introduced recently look into the following link
http://indiatogether.org/2005/nov/edu-reserve.htm
It raises lot of relevant questions. I admit that the current ruling can be termed plain silly given the impracticality(even a cursory thought reflects that) of the suggestions. That said,look at the much more reasonable suggestion(issue in the link) and the attitude of the schools towarsd such a ruling.
Best regards,
Magesh
If the private schools are going to lose out on Fees - then dont you think that as a fall out, girl children may be denied admission in future years in private schools?
ReplyDeleteI think either the Govt.has to reimburse the money lost by the school or else the whole idea may just work against the Girl children.
--- Very concerned