ACB raids school that demanded money for school-leaving certificates

Four days after midday reported that a city school was demanding money to provide marksheets and schoolleaving certificates to students AntiCorruption Bureau ACB officials raided the school and caught a clerk in the act of accepting the money A case has been registered against the clerk and the principalAlso read Pay Rs 2000 for amenities or forget about stamped marksheets SchoolParents say St Josephrsquos School in Agripada has demanded such amounts in the past as well PicsSameer MarkandeThe school in question is the St Josephrsquos Girls High School in Agripada which had earlier asked parents to fork out R2000 as their children had used the school facilities Their refusal to provide stamped copies of printouts of subject marks ndash which SSC students had to submit as part of the online admissions process to junior colleges ndash had put their admissions in jeopardyJ Ansari who filed the complaint with the ACBCaught in the actAfter the SSC board released official marksheets of students on Thursday parents went to collect them at the school However authorities refused to release report cards and the schoolleaving certificates to parents who hadnrsquot shelled out the lsquodevelopment feersquoParents who paid up the lsquodevelopment feersquo were given an unofficial slip receipt bearing a Kamathipura addressldquoOn Thursday when all SSC students were getting their marksheets the principal refused to hand over my daughterrsquos result and insisted that the documents would be provided only if we pay R2000rdquo said J Ansari father of one of the SSC studentsParents contacted the National Studentsrsquo Union of India NSUI for support ldquoWe immediately informed the education department and two education officials accompanied parents to the school They ordered the principal to stop targeting children and distribute the results without any further delayrdquo said Heena Kanojia from NSUIHowever the next day school authorities were back to their extorting ways when they didnrsquot provide schoolleaving certificates they had only given the marksheets Parents contacted the ACB and after listening to them the Bureau sent a plainclothes official along with the parents ldquoThe clerk again told us to pay up We did and the ACB caught him redhanded thenrdquo added AnsariHappened in the pastAnsari further added that the parents who paid up the money but demanded receipts were given a vague one ldquoIt is an unofficial receipt bearing the name of the schoolrsquos Parent Teachers Association and a Kamathipura addressrdquo Ansari informedParents added that the school has used this tactic in the past as well ldquoEvery year we are forced to pay this amount and never told what exactly is it charged for Last year too I fought against this system and so the principal has not yet given me my daughterrsquos Std IX resultsrdquo pointed a parentThe education department had even warned the school for collecting such lsquodevelopment feesrsquo Principal Sr Lovena Almeida had herself said the school took money because ldquothe school hadnrsquot received a nonsalary grant for nine years and students had to pay for the facilities they usedrdquoShe and the school management despite repeated attempts were unavailable for comment Meanwhile parents managed to get their marksheets on the last day of completing the online admissions process ie yesterday