The Maharashtra government is contemplating a law barring admission in junior colleges to students passing out of ICSE, CBSE and IB board schools. An announcement to this effect was made by school education minister Hasan Mushrif in the legislative assembly on July 24.
The apparent trigger for the proposed move was the allegation that these institutions do not comply with the statutory norms laid down by the state school education department. Of the 3,500 English medium schools in the state, ICSE, CBSE and IB schools number around 500.
BJP legislator Chandrashekar Bawankule raised the issue of private unaided schools, especially English-medium schools, through a calling-attention motion. The motion referred to the exorbitant fees charged by the board schools. Many such schools also force students to buy school uniforms, books and study materials from the institution, Bawankule alleged. Accusing the board schools of indulging in malpractices, Shiv Sena MLA Subhash Desai said two receipts under different heads were given to students by such schools.
Admitting that many of the board schools were known to charge excess money from parents and to insist that students buy school material from them at higher than market prices, Mushrif said, 'We will seek legal opinion from the law and judiciary department on whether students passing out from such defaulting schools can be denied admission in the junior colleges of the state. We will request the central board to cancel the registration of such schools.'
The state also plans to bring all unaided school under the control of the government by giving them aid.
