Don’t force parents to buy bags, HC tells pvt school

When the plea moved by two parents whose children are studying at Amritha Vidyalayam came up before him, Justice CV Karthikeyan held that while the schools can sell textbooks and uniforms, it cannot force parents to buy accessories like school bags and lunch bags, that too at such exorbitant rates. Granting an interim stay on sale of bags by the school, the judge posted the plea to June 10 for further hearing.

The parents had moved the plea seeking for a direction to the Secretary and Director of School Education to direct the school to issue text and notebooks without requiring parents to buy the exorbitantly priced accessories for the forthcoming academic year.

The plea also sought to direct the school to permit the students to continue to use only black and white shoes and socks as they had been using for the past many years, as many students have shoes that are still usable. Also, it would enable parents to buy them from open market.

Petitioner’s counsel Purushothaman also contended that the requirement to buy new books every year was against environment and ecology. If children made use of old books, there need not be printing of huge quantities of books which was against the environment. More new books would cause more damage to trees and ecology.

He also submitted that such exorbitant pricing of books and accessories had led to the parents holding a big demonstration and protested spontaneously as middle-class parents it was a shock when the management demanded sudden payment for unnecessary things. Even the District Collector and officials visited the place. But instead of addressing the issues, the school management was victimising many parents that they would issue transfer certificates and harass the children, the petitioner alleged.