DEHRADUN: A district-level control room set up in Dehradun for parents to register complaints regarding private schools has received 500 complaints in past one week. The complaints registered are mostly related to arbitrary increase of fees by some schools as well as the confusion regarding mandatory usage of NCERT books in the syllabus.Officials of the control room, which was being monitored by the district magistrate and district education officer, are now planning to open similar control rooms in other districts owing to the response received.S B Joshi, Dehradun district education officer, said, “On an average we receive around 60 complaints on a daily basis and we address them immediately. Our department has formed teams that go to each school to understand and verify the complaint, following which the next course of action is decided. The helpline will be active for the next couple of months till the admissions process is going on. Till last week most of the complaints that we received were regarding the use of NCERT books. And once that matter was resolved, fee issues became the highlight.”The control room was set up last week after chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat instructed all the district magistrates to ensure that book sellers provide NCERT books to retailers as per their needs and parents face no inconvenience. An education department official said, “We are looking at expanding this facility in other parts of the state and more such control rooms are likely to come up in the rest of the 12 districts.”Hailing the helpline, Vinay Shrivastav whose son studies in a public school in the city said, “Though I have personally not registered any complaints, I think it’s a good idea especially during the admission season. At least, the schools will be cautious and they will refrain from taking any unwarranted steps knowing that it can be reported immediately.”

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