THE CORRESPONDENT/PRINCIPAL AROKIAMADA MATRICULATION HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL Vs. TMT. T. SORUBARANI AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The law without justice is like the grain bereft of its fibre. For it is justice which like the fibre of the grain provides the texture that nourishes and sustains. Constitutional interpretation must likewise nourish and sustain.

(2.) Private Schools on warpath. The reason is an erosion of the autonomy of private schools. In the development of nation, post-independence India is attributable to the efforts of private schools. The implementation of Right to Education Act itself has aroused widespread indignation within the community of private school promoters. Many of them have invested their life-savings into educational institution bench-marked with the best.

(3.) Educational institutions both schools and colleges are organized by the Government, local bodies like Municipalities and Zilla Parishads, as also by the private organizations. The quality of education or learning outcome is integrally linked to the quality of teachers. Great teachers can make a huge difference to a child. But not every school has great teachers. There are many excellent teachers in India today and they have been doing a great job unsung and unnoticed for years. 50% children in urban India get admitted in private schools. Bearing in mind the implementation of the Right to Education Act, private unaided schools also have to admit minimum 25% students of their capacity from disadvantaged sections. While teachers' salaries in these schools are low, the pupil - teacher ratio is higher, since they hire more teachers. The issue before us in this matter revolves around the fixation of pay scales of the teachers of the unaided schools on par with the teachers working in Government schools. It is true, good teachers ought to be paid as well as other professions if not more. We need to ensure the salaries of good teachers are far far higher than what they are now and figure out the ways to evaluate teacher performance. But the organization of educational institutions in the private sector has been subject to regulation by the State in varying degrees from time to time. It may not be necessary to trace the entire history of such regulation by the State of the various educational institutions. The scales of pay and other conditions of service of teachers and other employees of the private schools may not necessarily compare favourably with those of their counterparts of the Government.