BHOPAL: Around 50,000 private schools of Madhya Pradesh board will go on an indefinite strike from Wednesday. This comes after the Private School Owners’ Association sent a letter to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and school education department on August 28 citing certain demands, that the association says, have remained unaddressed.Chief among the demands was “rectifying” clauses of the Private School Fee Regulation Act, that the association contends, were hampering the smooth functioning of the private schools. President of the Private School Owners’ Association Ajit Singh claimed that the Private School Fee Regulation Act “stifled” the private schools’ freedom and made easy processes even more complicated.“The government spends lacks of rupees on one government school every year, yet you can see the lack of quality in education. It is because of this that all the RTE admissions are done in private schools so that some children may get good education. We don’t even spend half as much on private schools as the government does on government schools. But if we are deprived of the right to increase the fee even as the expenses increase, how will our schools function? We don’t get any grant from the government and have to manage everything from the fee that students give,” said Singh.“We had written to the CM about our demands last Wednesday, but haven’t received a response yet. There are so many clauses that hamper the smooth functioning of the private schools and they should be immediately rectified,” added Singh.Talking to TOI, Principal Secretary, Dipti Gaur Mukharjee said: “It is illegal if they are going on a strike. We had asked for suggestions on the Private School Fee Regulation Act and will incorporate the suggestions and objections that are reasonable. They are only trying to pressurize us. If they have an issue, they should go to the court, but not resort to illegal means.”The letter to the CM urged that the school education department’s criteria that a private school be constructed in 1-acre area should done away with as many established private schools are unable to expand their area owing to the densely-populated localities.

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