Parents' organisations protest outside education director's office
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Fee hike row heats up in city
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Parents' organisations protest outside education director's office
About 50 representatives of parents first queued up outside the director of education's office on Dr Ambedkar Road and played the mouth organ in a bid to mock officials.
Later, over 100 parents protested in Pimpri-Chinchwad and had to be temporarily detained by the police.
"We played the mouth organ to symbolise that at the moment our protest is non-violent. We do not want to disturb anyone but want our demands to be accepted peacefully. However, it has been six months and our issues have not been resolved. We do not want to get provoked as none of us will step back in this struggle now," said Sandeep Chavan, vice-president of Forum for Fairness in Education, Pune.
The principal demand of the parents is that the state government introduces a mechanism to regulate fees in private unaided schools and colleges.
Besides that, the parents are also demanding that education be made free from kindergarten to post graduation rather than from standard I to standard VIII according to the Right to Education Act.
"Not just private schools, but even nurseries and kindergartens are bleeding parents dry. There is absolutely no regulation of the fees being demanded by such institutes and right from application forms to admission fees, the charges in these institutions are exorbitant compared to the costs involved and facilities," said Mateen Mujawar, president of Crescent High School Parents' Association.
The parents' organisations said that they chose this time to protest as the winter session of the state government is going on and they want the education ministry to pass a law to regulate fee hike.
"The last time we met Education Minister Balasaheb Thorat, he had promised to do so. This is just a reminder for him. On December 8, we will meet him in Nagpur during the session and if our demands are not met, then we shall resort to drastic measures," said Chavan.
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