IT’S DOUBTFUL IF B.B. CHAUHAN, education inspector of Mumbai (south zone) in the Maharashtra state government’s education ministry, is aware of the provisions of Article 30 (1) of the Constitution of India which confers a fundamental right upon all linguistic and religious minorities to “establish and administer educational institutions of their choice”. Nor is he likely to be aware of the Supreme Court’s judgement in T.M.A. Pai Foundation vs. State of Karnataka (2002) which extended this right to all citizens under Article 19 (1) (g).
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However Chauhan is aware of the provisions of the hitherto moth-balled Maharashtra Employees of Private Schools (Conditions of Service) Regulation Act (MEPS), 1977. This perhaps explains why he has issued notices to five top-ranked private schools — the Cathedral and John Connon, Activity High, Bombay Scottish, St. Mary’s and Diamond Jubilee School — for failure to respect the provisions of the said Act. According to Chauhan, s. 3 (1) of the MEPS Act requires all employees of private schools to retire upon completing 58 years of age. “Moreover Rule 17 of a government resolution (GR), dated August 7, 2009, states that all schools, whether affiliated to ICSE, CBSE, IGCSE, IB or any other board, have to mandatorily follow rules stipulated by the state government,” says Chauhan.
Nor is this the first time, this issue has been raised by the education ministry. In March 2013, a show-cause notice was sent to the Anglo-Scottish Education Society, which manages the Cathedral and John Connon School (CJCS, estb.1860) — ranked Maharashtra’s #1 co-ed day school for the past seven years in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings — directing the society to terminate the contract of principal Meera Isaacs on the ground that she has crossed the stipulated retirement age. This year the issue has been resurrected and expanded to include principals of three more private schools in south Mumbai. By common consensus these schools are among the country’s most well-managed institutions of primary-secondary education.
“In the T.M.A. Pai Foundation case, the Supreme Court clearly ruled that unaided education institutions are free to frame their own administrative regulations. The apex court had directed the state government to amend the MEPS Act and all other rules in conformity with its judgement in this case. But it has not yet been done. This is contempt of court,” opines S.C. Kedia, honorary secretary of the Unaided Schools Forum which claims a membership of 200 private unaided schools in Maharashtra.
According to bemused monitors of the education scenario in Maharashtra which despite its pre-eminence as the country’s #1 industrial state ranks 8th in the Education Development Index of the Delhi-based National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), the targeting of these top-ranked private schools is because they present soft targets offering shakedown opportunities. “If not, why would the state education ministry which should be busily engaged with mending the broken government school system, spend time fixing top-ranked private schools which clearly don’t need their attention?” queries a Mumbai-based education consultant who preferred to remain anonymous.
Good question.
Nadia Lewis (Mumbai)