Nagpur: In a significant development, the Association of Private Schools has demanded stern action against online learning apps/portals, alleging ‘cheating of parents’ by these companies. The Maharashtra English School Trustees Association (MESTA) has written to the State Government in this regard and has also declared its intention to hold state-wide protests against these learning apps, media reports said.
According to MESTA President Sanjay Tayde-Patil, a delegation will meet School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad at Mumbai, where the budget session of the State Legislature is going on. Our demand is that there must be some regulation for all these online learning apps and portals that are swindling money from parents in the name of education, he lamented.
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Notably, MESTA had played a key role in literally forcing the government’s hand to reopen schools in January itself, even though the original plan seemed to be for not doing so before February 15. It had declared reopening of schools in defiance of the government orders in January, following which very senior political leaders got involved and soon schools were allowed to reopen.
Tayde-Patil said, “We have seen how everyone hounded English schools in the last two years and so many rules and regulations were imposed on us. Every single move by MESTA members was questioned and allegations were thrust on us like school trustees are some kind of anti-social elements. But shockingly, there are no regulations for these online learning portals. Parents are losing their hard earned money, but nobody cares.”
MESTA is preparing for a state-wide agitation if the government does not heed their request. “We will hold protests in every district as the rights and welfare of the students is our prime focus. There is an open looting going on by the education apps that don’t even follow the state’s rules or curriculum,” said Tayde-Patil.
He added that the government needs to regulate all such companies. “We have to safeguard the rights of our students and parents. Unless there are proper government regulations, nothing can be done. The government has always said that it focuses on students’ welfare, so it is high time that they follow up on that,” said Tayde-Patil.
