The District Primary Education Officer (DPEO) slapped a fine of Rs1.10 lakh on Memnagar-based Divyapath School for teaching subjects from a private publication despite being affiliated with Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB).The violation was discovered when the DPEO conducted a random check across schools. The school had asked students of class I to VIII to refer to books of the private publication, apart from the text books of GSHSEB.
The DEO issued a notice to the school, in addition to the fine, granting a time of five days to pay the penalty amount, failing which, the affiliation of the school would have been cancelled. Sources in the state education board said that affiliation was given on condition that subjects of the syllabus be taught from books prescribed by Gujarat State School Text Book Board (GSTBB).
To ensure that students don’t suffer owing to a sudden change in the syllabus taught, GSHSEB officials asked the school authorities to complete the ongoing term with whatever syllabus they were teaching. From the next academic year itself, the school will have to compulsorily follow state board syllabus.
The total penalty amounted to Rs 2.35 lakh, because the school was affiliated with the board since 2007-08. First-time offenders are penalized with Rs10,000 while repeat offenders are fined Rs 25,000.Since the school violated the norms from the first year of affiliation and then continued doing so, the total penalty amounted to Rs2.35 lakh. However, since the Right to Education Act was implemented in 2013, the repeat offence penalty was sought for four years.
The DPEO issued similar notices to other schools in the city as well. After the schools submit necessary documents, DPEO will further decide on the course of action.
Source – Times of India – Ahmedabad – 11th January 2017
