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Babus mull action against schools, district education officer seeks directions on action

Updated: 2014-05-05 10:48:47 BHOPAL: Taking a strong view of increasing number of complaints from parents against 'arbitrary' fee hike by private CBSE schools, district education officer (DEO) in charge, Prashant Dolas has written to commissioner public instructions (CPI) SK Pal seeking directions. Letter asks for guidelines on how to curb tendency of private schools' to hike fees arbitrarily, monopolizing books by schools and increasing weight of school bags.   Parents have alleged in their complaints that school bags are getting heavier each year despite directives to cut down weight of school bags. State commission for protection of child rights (SCPCR) too had written to district administration last year in January to ensure that only NCERT books are followed in the school curriculum which would lessen the overall load of the school bags of students. However, the recommendation was not followed.   Notably, the 981 Kendriya Vidyalayas across India have stipulated that schoolbags for classes I and II should not weigh more than 2 kg. For classes III and IV, the bag weight should be less than 3 kg, and those studying in classes V to VIII shouldn't carry bags more than 4 kg. The upper limit for senior classes —IX to XII— has been set at 6 kg. However, most other CBSE schools do no follow this norm.   Dolas in his letter has asked for directions on the various complaints received by his office. He said, "Based on the directions received by DPI, we will initiate action against erring private schools."