Tuesday, 13 September 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The chairperson of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) Geeta Khanna has written to chief secretary Sukhbir Singh Sandhu to set up guidelines for the operation of coaching institutes across the state to ensure the safety of young students. Khanna said that the commission has received several complaints against the operation of several coaching institutes for the past many years.
Considering this, she inspected several of such institutes in Dehradun and found out the lack of standard operating procedure (SOP) in most of the institutes. She said that thousands of students from several villages, cities and other states arrive in Dehradun to get coaching in such institutes that take a hefty amount of money as fees but still fail to provide basic facilities necessary for a student. She stated that students aged below 18 years are mostly registered in such coaching institutes but they are still not given proper treatment by the coaching operators. Most of the coaching institutes in other cities of the State have also somewhat similar conditions, stated Khanna. She said that to ensure the coaching institute operators work across the State as per the law without compromising the future of students, she has asked the CS to take action to make guidelines to run institutes.
She said that as per her familiarity and understanding of the operation of coaching institutes due to her inspections, she has sent suggestions to the CS on some prominent issues including basic facility and safety of students, fee regulation and provision of punishment for irregularities by the coaching management. She said that she has also written to Sandhu to hold a meeting soon with the departments concerned to take action on the matter as soon as possible.
