Enact RTE in CBSE schools: PIL

Chennai: A PIL has been filed in the Madras high court, seeking directions to the authorities to implement provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) with respect to CBSE schools in the State. When the petition came up for hearing before a division bench, comprising Justices Aruna Jagadeesan and S. Vaidyanathan, the additional government pleader P. Sanjai Gandhi took the notice on behalf of the government.

The petitioner A.V. Pandian, a social activist from Thirumullaivoyal, said that after the introduction of the RTE Act, 2009, all schools, irrespective of the Boards or CBSE, had to obtain recognition from a competent authority from the State government. However, Tamil Nadu had failed to have the competent authority grant recognition/affiliation to the CBSE schools and no authorised officer had been notified.

Therefore, there was a lapse on the part of the State government in enacting the provisions for CBSE schools with reference to granting of recognition under the RTE Act. This was violation of various provisions of the Central Act and Rules. As a result, the CBSE schools had not been monitored by the State government and unrecognised schools were mushrooming in the state.

The petitioner sent representations to the concerned State government. Since there was no action, he filed the present petition seeking direction to the authorities to implement RTE in respect of CBSE schools. Remove nomenclatures:  Meanwhile, another petition has been filed in the Madras high court, seeking direction to abolish the practice of schools using the nomenclatures, ‘Matriculation’, ‘Oriental’ and ‘Anglo-Indian’ as suffix or prefix.

 The petitioner V. Venkatesan, the president of the Parents Union for Students Educational Rights (PUSER), submitted that as per the Tamil Nadu Uniform School Education Act, 2010, all the schools were brought under the control of the Common Board. The State government should have ordered the schools to remove the name plates, having the old board names such as Matriculation, Anglo-Indian and Oriental as suffix or prefixes. The petitioner sent representations to the authorities. Since there was no response, he filed the present petition seeking direction to the authorities toabolish the practice of schools using such terms.