Kerala - Kottayam   

NSS call to avoid discrimination in education Act

KOTTAYAM: The Nair Service Society (NSS) has called against bringing in any discriminatory provision based on communal considerations with regard to the management, control and administration of aided private educational institutions in the Right to Education Act.

In a statement issued in the backdrop of the amendment brought in the Rajya Sabha to Section 38 (1) of the Right to Education Act (providing for school management committees), NSS general secretary P.K Narayana Panicker and assistant secretary G. Sukumaran Nair pointed out that as per the amendment, the proposed management committees would act as advisory bodies in the case of minority institutions.

However, they would continue to be management committees in educational institutions run by the majority community. They said the amendment, in effect, sought to control educational institutions run by the majority community indirectly through the management committees consisting of outside agencies, including politicians, while keeping the minority institutions out of the net. “Under the peculiar situation prevailing in Kerala, the school management committees are not feasible and the powers of the private managements irrespective of their community, who have played a crucial role in the education sector, would have to prevail. There cannot be any discrimination on communal basis, in this regard,” they said.

The educational institutions of the majority community were built by mobilising funds, both in cash and kind from the local donors and not through foreign funding, they said. Moreover, these institutions continued to serve the common people in extending free and quality education.

According to the NSS leaders, it was the duty of the State government and people's representatives to impress upon the Central authorities that any move to control education institutions run by one particular community would be deemed fraudulent and highly discriminatory.

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