Bhubaneswar: Commercialisation of education has been a long-standing issue plaguing the education system. Even though the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued guidelines that any school affiliated to it cannot involve in commercial activities on school premises or any form of commercial activities, all in vain.
Private schools in Odisha are engaged in commercial activities like sale of uniforms and books, and parents are forced to buy these things from the institutions at exorbitant prices, says report.
Earlier this week, a man was allegedly thrashed by staff of a privately-run school, Deepika English Medium School, located in Sector-5 in Rourkela for opposing sale of uniforms on the premises of the educational institution.
The incident came to fore after a video footage of the attack on the man went viral.
On being asked, the man said the staff beat him after he opposed the sale of such products inside the school premises as it was against the laid norms of CBSE. However, the school staff allegedly beat him up.
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After getting information, the local Tehsildar rushed to the spot to take a stock of the situation. He rescued the injured man and seized a vehicle laden with books. Besides, he locked a room of the school filled with uniforms.
Similarly, CBSE has directed schools to use NCERT books for the students from Class 1 to 8. But schools here are using books from their own publication.
Nitish Barik, whose child is a student of Balasore DAV School, told OTV that the school authorities are forcing parents to buy books from their publication. “We reminded them about the CBSE guidelines but they blatantly denied,” he said.
A staff of the school, Akhandal Nayak, also admitted to using of DAV publication books.
It is worth mentioning that the CBSE had issued an advisory to all its affiliated schools to not to indulge in commercial activities by way of selling of books, stationary, uniforms, school bags and others and strictly mentioned to adhere to the provisions of “Affiliation Bye-Laws of the Board”.
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The board had also released a circular warning the schools not to force students and parents to buy books other than NCERT/CBSE. However, schools are flouting all the norms at will without any impediment.