Dehradun’s Chief Education Officer today dismissed the allegation that she favoured the school management in matters of the complaints filed by the parents against schools.
Responding today to various allegations levelled by some parents and associations that the chief education officer (CEO) of Dehradun Asha Rani Painuly favours the school management over the complaints of parents against them, Painuly said that she takes every decision on case to case basis taking its full authenticity into consideration.
Since the schools have started to provide e-classes to students as a measure to contain spread of Covid-19 among students and the school staff, several parents have lodged their complaints to the district education office regarding the issues like pressure from schools to deposit school fees, matters of overcharging of the fees and certain schools not providing proper classes to students.
Painuly said that she takes cognizance of every complaint she receives and investigates both the sides thoroughly before making any decision. She said that she has sent several notices to those private schools that were found to be violating the rules set by the State Government. However, many parents and associations have accused Painuly of being biased towards the school management. A parents association even recently stated that they are planning to file a case against CEO as according to them, Painuly allegedly ignored the welfare of students and supported some private schools that purportedly exploited parents during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Responding to such allegations, Painuly said that she is not biased towards anyone but rather than going by one side of the matter, she enquires and listens to both the parties. “We have received many complaints and we have penalised many schools too after enquiring the matter and listening to both sides,” said Painuly. Meanwhile, she also added that not all the complaints filed by locals are always genuine. Therefore, it is important to enquire the whole situation from parents as well as school management before taking any action, stated Painuly. She said that she recently received a complaint in which the parents had complaint that a private school is not providing online classes but is asking to submit tuition fees. When the school management was called for questioning, they presented the recordings of online classes provided by them to the students, added Painuly. She informed that out of every five complaints she receives, at least two complaints turn out to be false. She said that those who accuse her of favouring the private schools are mostly the people who have probably filed complaints against schools but could not substantiate their charges.
Friday, 04 December 2020 | PNS | Dehradun
