Monday, July 31, 2006

Education for sale at Delhi school

Education for sale at Delhi school - NDTV.com - News on Education for sale at Delhi school: "One of Delhi's top schools was caught on camera by NDTV selling a seat for Rs 2.5 lakh. It is not merit but the broker who decides who gets admission in the school for the right amount of money.

Delhi has two branches of the privately owned Mount Carmel school. An NGO informed the NDTV team that donations are common practice at the institution. Sources asked the team to contact a broker named Muktesh who regularly gets children admitted into the southwest Delhi branch of the school.

Bindu, who posed as a student, approached Muktesh for admission to class XI to study Science. At a preliminary meeting, Muktesh said that even though admissions closed two weeks ago, he can get Bindu in for Rs 2.5 lakh.

Now that NDTV had everything on camera, Muktesh was told that he has been caught. He tried to make a run for it, but eventually surrendered. Reluctantly, he explained how his business functions. He has contacts at various schools. When parents approach him, he puts them in touch with these contacts, which include school officials.

At Mount Carmel, his main contact is Anil whose own child studies in the junior school here. Anil is a caterer and occasionally provides food for school functions, which is how he met and formed a network with school officials. "I would have made just Rs 10,000-20,000. My friends would have distributed the rest. I'm not sure who all are involved, whether it's the Principal, Vice Principal or the Chairman," said Muktesh.

The Vice Principal was later told about what NDTV had dug up. He offered a bunch of excuses and his earlier comments about Bindu's poor caliber were soon discarded. He instead said she had proved her merit. "We admitted her because she had the required percentage," claimed Thomas.

NDTV then spoke to the Principal who confirmed that the Vice Principal is in charge of all school admissions. "The Vice Principal is in charge, but we don't take money," said William, Principal, Mount Carmel. The Principal did not ask if he could look at the tape and said that ordering an inquiry is unnecessary"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very nice post.

I don't know which school you are referring to but this has become a kind of business where even politicians are involved. Only an expose on camera can expose this sort of thing. Hope NDTV follows it up and something concrete comes out of it.

The tragic part is that hardly any shcool lives up to the literal mearning of the word education- to take out what is already in and not blindly stuff in- Make your passion your profession