Government plans to rein in CBSE, ICSE schools In the legislature

[sajiv]

Government plans to rein in CBSE, ICSE schools In the legislature

BANGALORE: The State Government is planning to introduce a Bill to regulate functioning of CBSE and ICSE schools in the State.

Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that the Government had received complaints of a sharp rise in fees being charged by such schools during the last one year.

As the Government had no powers to regulate their functioning, the complaints had been forwarded to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, he said.

Replying to C.T. Ravi (BJP) during Question Hour, the Minister said education had become some sort of business for school managements.

The Government only gave no-objection certificate to managements to open schools and it had no powers to regulate their functioning. To effectively control the functioning of these schools, the Government was proposing to introduce a Bill, Mr. Kageri said.

The Minister said a high-powered committee, headed by Commissioner for Public Instruction, submitted a report in 2008 on the fee structure of private institutions in Bangalore city. The recommendations of the panel were under the Government's consideration, he said.

Earlier, R. Roshan Baig and N.L. Narendra Babu (Congress), and Mr. Ravi said the Government should monitor the fee structure of CBSE/ICSE schools that had been accused of charging exorbitant fees.

Replying to Pratap Gowda Patil (BJP), Mr. Kageri said schoolteachers were not involved in the preparation of midday meals. Teachers only inform the cooks the number of students in the class that day.

Mr. Patil said the quality of education had suffered in his constituency (Maski) as teachers were involved in preparing midday meals.

Minister for Higher Education Aravind Limbavali told C. Puttaranga Setty (Congress) that work on government engineering colleges in Chamarajanagar, Haveri, K.R. Pet, Kushalnagar would commence next month. A sum of Rs. 17.5 crore each had been sanctioned for construction work.

Work on engineering college buildings in Hassan and Ramanagara had commenced. H.D. Revanna (JD-S), D.K. Shivakumar (Congress) and other members wanted the work to be expedited.