State wakes up to donation menace in schools

GULBARGA: The Karnataka government, it seems, has finally started cracking on the donation menace in schools. It has instructed The Additional Commissioner of Public Instructions, Gulbarga, to ensure that educational institutions which have collected additional fees from students return it to them.A letter dated December 19, 2011, from the Under-secretary to the Government, Education Department (Primary Education) M Prabhuswami, to Additional Commissioner of Public Instructions, Gulbarga, a copy of which is available with Express, instructs that a compliance report in this regard be sent to the government at the earliest. The government directive follows a report submitted by the then Additional Commissioner of Public Instructions Syed Abdul Rub to the government on September 29, 2011.The report states that three Gulbarga schools, St Joseph’s English Medium Pre- Primary School, St Joseph’s English and Kannada Primary School and St Joseph’s English Medium High School - all being run by the Triennial Carmel Education Society, Mysore - have failed to reply to the notice sent by the Additional Commissioner’s office.An inspection in these schools revealed that these institutions had collected additional fees of as much as Rs 1.20 crore from students in the last decade, in contravention of the regulations of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983. Worse, this amount was deposited illegally with a charitable trust and was being utilised for private purposes. Although these schools were instructed to repay the additional fees within a fortnight, they have failed to do so, adds the report. In view of the government directive, it remains to be seen how the education department implements it.(This is the first of a three-part series)