Prakash Javadekar hints at regulatory mechanism for CBSE schools

Pune: Stressing the need for a regulatory mechanism for CBSE schools, Union minister Prakash Javadekar today said the schools will be made "accountable" as far as their quality of education and charging of "unreasonable" fees was concerned.

"There are CBSE schools in the country and I welcome private investment in (the field of) education as quality education is needed. But it has come to light that once they get affiliation, there are no restrictions on these (CBSE) schools.

"Even the state government officials cannot go to the CBSE schools. I will put an end to this and there will be accountability as all these schools have to offer good education and charge reasonable fees," he said here.

The Human Resource Development Minister was speaking after inaugurating a two-day western region workshop organised by the HRD Ministry, aimed at sharing innovations and best practices for school education.

"It is good that private schools are coming, but all these institutions should not become business... We are in the process of formulating a policy (for CBSE schools) as we want co-existence of government and private schools to improve the quality of education," he said.

Later, while talking to reporters, Javadekar said private institutions should strive for quality education and not bring the commercial aspect into education.

"The fees should be reasonable. There are complaints from parents that all these schools charge unreasonable fees," he said.

The BJP leader said the state board schools have a dedicated education department, which has an established administrative (regulatory) mechanism.

"However, the CBSE does not have such a system and there is a need for this kind of system as the number of these schools is increasing in the country. 

We are thinking on how to go about it," he said.

Javadekar also noted that the government has resolved to reform teachers' education in the country.

"On one hand, good BEd colleges are on the verge of closing down, while on the other, there are some fly-by night institutes where degrees can be obtained easily. People take admissions in these institutes by paying lakhs of rupees," he said.

The minister said the ministry was now seeking affidavits from all BEd and DEd colleges.

"So far, 6,500 affidavits have been received. Show-cause notices have been issued to those who have failed to submit the affidavits," he said.

He said the bogus institutes will have to go and only good ones will stay.

Javadekar congratulated Maharashtra and Rajashtan "where a trend is being seen that parents are pulling their wards from private English medium schools and enrolling them in Zilla Parishad schools."

He also stressed that community participation was needed to improve government schools in the country.

On amendments in the no-detention-policy, Javadekar said the bill was ready and after getting comments from all the departments, it would be tabled in the parliament by the next monsoon session.

The two-day workshop is being attended by stakeholders of school education from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Diu and Daman, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.