A COSTLY AFFAIR

Schools can’t insist on customised stationery

Anahita Mukherji I TNN

Mumbai: Does your child’s school insist that you buy branded shoes and stationery only from the school and customised uniforms that are available at just one store?

If so, the school is flouting a little-known state government resolution issued in 1994 and 2003, which states that parents should not be compelled to buy uniforms from a specific shop and the fabric for uniforms should be freely available in the market. The GR says parents should not be compelled to buy books, stationery, uniforms, diaries, socks, ties, etc from the school.

But this rule seems to be followed only in its breach. “Eighty per cent of Mumbai schools insist that students purchase stationery and uniforms from them. Those who refuse often have their marks withheld till they pay up. Schools often make uniforms out of fabric that it not available in the market. This is a violation of the law. I blame the government for not implementing its own law,’’ said Jayant Jain of the Forum For Fairness in Education.

But parents themselves seem to be totally unaware of the GR. State education secretary Sanjay Kumar said the government had not received a single complaint.

At Jamnabai Narsee School (Juhu), parents say they have to buy notebooks worth around Rs 1,100 from the school each year. “The notebooks come at Rs 60 each and are far more than what we need in a year. The yearly stock of notebooks would have cost only Rs 400-Rs 500 at a regular store,’’ a parent said.

Parents of the school’s ISC section said they have to cough up about Rs 6,500 for a set of five uniforms; this, they say, would not have cost more than Rs 4,000 at a regular store. But Jamnabai principal Sudeshna Chatterjee said the school had its reasons. “We have a customised stationery with a standard look that is important for the school’s image. The stationery is provided at prices competitive with the market,’’ she added. “We have one particular vendor for uniforms to ensure that the standard remains the same,’’ Chatterjee explained.

Thakur Public School (Kandivli) informed parents in April of a newly introduced “uniform school shoe’’ that would be compulsory for all students. “Parents are therefore advised ‘not to buy’ any other shoe from outside,’’ the notice said.

“The school was selling us branded shoes. The school authorities said regular (nonbranded) shoes would leave marks on the floor,’’ said a parent.

School principal Reetu Duggal said: “We were in talks with Reebok to provide the shoes to us at half the regular cost. We put out a notice asking parents not to buy sports shoes so that they could take a look at the ones we were providing. We later sent out a circular informing parents that it was not compulsory to buy the shoes from us.’’ But parents who bought shoes of other makes were told by teachers that only Reebok shoes would be allowed.

A parent of a pre-primary student at Ryan International School (Navi Mumbai) said he paid the school Rs 325 for uniforms, Rs 550 for “graduation day’’ costumes and Rs 250 for a book written by the school manager.

“It was not compulsory for parents to buy the book. It is not compulsory for parents to buy graduation-day costumes from us,’’ said Francis Joseph, an official from the Ryan Group. But parents insist that the school did not give them any such option.

Several parents of Goregaon’s Vibgyor High School said the school has made it mandatory to buy Adidas shoes worth Rs 1,000 and uniforms from one particular supplier. The school authorities were unavailable for comment.

AGAINST RULES: Despite a GR which states that parents should not be compelled to buy uniforms from a specific shop, the rule is flouted