Schools closed for bandh third time in a month

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Hyderabad: Schools will be forced to close down on Friday — for the third time this month, and within 10 days of the commencement of the new academic year. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has called for a state-wide school bandh to protest the failure of the government in regulating fees in corporate and private schools; failure in implementing the 25 per cent quota for poor children in private schools under the Right to Education Act; and failure to provide better facilities in government schools.
Given the ABVP’s strong presence in the city, most city schools have deemed it prudent to declare a holiday on Friday. Schools lost two working days last week on account of the Telangana Joint Action Committee’s ‘Chalo Assembly’ call.
Though the AP Recognised Private Schools’ Managements’ Association and Hyderabad Schools Parents’ Association have been making repeated appeals to political parties and student organisations for the last three years to exempt schools from bandhs in the interest of students, their very reasonable pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
The government has also ignored their long-pending demand to bring schools under the Essential Services Maintenance Act, like in case of power, transport, health departments etc. This would exempt schools from responding to bandh calls.
ABVP’s Bhanu Prakash justifies the bandh saying the schools are “fleecing parents by collecting huge fees and donations... Education has become unaffordable for middle and lower income groups. We had to call a bandh to pressurise the government,” he said.