Right to Education: Who is right, who is wrong?

The future of over 20,000 students hangs in the balance, while the popular National Public Schools itself stares at an uncertain future. In one fell swoop, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), dealt a serious blow to the group of institutions, and more so students who will now have to either get admission in other schools, that too in the middle of the academic year or choose a different syllabus altogether.

What next ? This was the question posed by thousands of parents to the NPS management a day after CBSE de-affiliated the six branches of the school. As per the circular issued by the  CBSE on Tuesday, the National Public School (NPS) which has five main campuses in the city and one campus in Mysuru, has  lost affiliation for all its schools.  This means schools cannot continue with their admission process for the next academic year and henceforth will be governed by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Karnataka government.

The school also has to follow the state education rules and syllabus. Parents and students are worried about the various implications of the CBSE decision. Even though the CBSE decision will not result in the closure of any of these six schools, there are a lot of changes expected in the coming days if NPS fails to get any reprieves from the court of law.

One of the implications of the CBSE de-affiliation is that the school will now come under the administrative control of the DPI. According to the DPI officials, as per the CBSE circular, NPS cannot run classes 9 and 11 from the academic year 2017-18 which implies that students studying in classes 8 and 10 either have to switch to another CBSE school or opt for the state syllabus. These are the possibilities only if NPS fails to get any judicial remedy for the CBSE decision.

Speaking to this newspaper, an officer from the state education department informed that this NPS development is a welcome one for many reasons. “Till now all CBSE/ ICSE affiliated schools did not bother to implement any rules and regulations put forth by the union and state governments.  They were quite convinced that CBSE would not take action, based on the state government’s direction. Following the NPS incident, now all the schools will fall in line,” he said.

What next? According to the sources in the state government, the state education department and CBSE are expected to grant one time relief to the NPS if they come forward to implement the RTE quota in full spirit, beside accommodating extra students.

‘Don’t panic’
According to an email circulated by the NPS management to all its students and parents on Wednesday, the school has clarified that it has admitted students from disadvantaged groups under the Right to Education (RTE) quota. It added that the school has committed no mistake. “Students and parents need not panic. We will explore all the possibilities,” informed the email. The school also made it clear that it has not received any intimation from the CBSE over cancellation of the affiliation.

DPI gets bigger RTE stick
CBSE's decision to withdraw its affiliation comes as a big surprise for the state education department. Officials are of the view that this development is intended to give them more power to streamline the admission process under the Right to Education (RTE) act.

According to the officials, till now these CBSE and ICSE schools were not following the state norms on RTE, stating that they were governed by the central boards. “They were always playing the minority card to get exemption. There were complaints that a few schools were even misusing them, but we could not do anything about that. Last year DPI wanted an elite school to be de-affiliated for rejecting the RTE students. But the school escaped from the CBSE action on technical grounds. But now the NPS development has proved that CBSE is now taking the recommendations made by the state government, seriously,” said an officer. “When it comes to fee structure and other issues we can now approach the central boards,” he added.

But academicians feel that the need of the hour is a non-discriminatory act to implement the RTE quota in all schools, including minority schools. According to Dr. Gauri Shankar, an independent researcher, the central government should follow the NEET module. “Minority schools are denying seats to RTE students saying they have minority status. Let them provide 25% quota for students from their own community/religion. Presently these schools are not doing any favors to the poor families of the same communities,” he said.

“NEET is now applicable to all the medical colleges. This judgement should be followed here too. While allocating seats, let DPI ensure that minority schools get more students from their own community,” he concluded.

Minority schools should get their RTE plans in order: K.V. Dhananjay, Advocate, Supreme Court
The ‘National Public Schools’ in Bengaluru are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), New Delhi. These schools are very popular and have earned several academic distinctions at national level examinations.  Still, the unthinkable happened this week. The CBSE took the extreme step of removing its affiliation to six of these schools, thereby removing the very lifeblood of these schools.

However, the CBSE has allowed the current 9th and 10th Standard students in these schools to take their 10th Board examination (in 2017 and 2018) without hindrance. Still, the education law in Karnataka now forces these schools to shut down because of other students, if these schools do not obtain immediate affiliation of the State Education Board or the CISCE (popularly known as the ICSE), the only private Education Board recognised by the Government of Karnataka.

The moral and legal blame for this mess lies squarely on the school management, though they themselves might have been duped and victimized by someone else. The management allegedly did the unthinkable –it forged and prepare a central government document to claim ‘minority status’. But why?
Minority Institutions are outside the RTE Act. Two types of minorities are recognised in India – religious and linguistic. The Central Government issues a certificate to recognise a religious minority and the State Government issues a certificate to recognise a linguistic minority. In this case, these schools allegedly submitted a forged Central Government certificate to say that the Central Government has recognised them as a ‘linguistic minority’ – a topsy-turvy way of going about things. It got caught in the process. It is an extremely serious crime to forge a Central Government record.

As a lawyer who has represented the largest number of private unaided schools of Karnataka in Courts, I have no hesitation is saying that I have not come across any other incident of such forgery by a school. However, if any other school is in possession of such a forged record, it should admit to its mistake immediately, hand over the culprit to the police and save itself from all further trouble. The culprit could be a lawyer, member of  the Management, external consultant or a politician stakeholder. Even if one Management member forges such a record, the rest of the Management too could be legally hauled up if they turn a blind eye and keep quiet about the crime.

A minority school has a clear and public duty to keep its minority record in a transparent manner. As the law itself allows a minority school to remain outside the RTE Act, schools that claim such a status will naturally be asked many questions about their minority status and they should be in a position to lawfully justify their minority status. They should never ever resort to such ‘quackery’ and crime.”