The Telangana high court on Friday, July 3, 2020, questioned the Centre, CBSE and other central institutions regarding rural India being devoid of internet facilities for online classes. It has asked the Centre to respond by July 13. The bench reacted to pleas that the Centre was providing laptops at a subsidised rates for the online classes, asked how many parents know about the existence of such a scheme.

The bench further added, “Leave alone two laptops for a tribal family, let it (the Centre) first think of providing two square meals a day to the impoverished families.” It made clear that it wants to first hear from the Centre that why their guidelines do not address the ground realities.

While hearing a PIL filed by Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA), the bench sought action against the schools for collecting term fees, admission fees, library fees, extracurricular activity fees and transportation fees instead of collecting only monthly fees to access online classes.

The state’s special counsel A Sanjeev Kumar informed the court about how the TRS government has formed a sub-committee to study the issue after the Centre prohibited reopening of schools and colleges till July 31. The bench added,”Take a firm stand, like Maharashtra which has banned online classes. Adjust Centre’s guidelines to local conditions. Unless there is an express prohibition dictated by law, you cannot control it. You say you are not permitting online classes. But you are not stopping coercive methods of private school managements either.”

Source: The Times of India

Also read: Telangana survey on online classes: 39.6% families don’t have smartphones