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Vinod Pandya
Citizen-nominee for RTI Awards 2009 2009
Reference Number: C831
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Organization: Gujarat Rajya Talimi Snatak Samiti, an association of trained graduate teachers
Nominated by: self
Why is he short-listed for RTI Awards 2009?
For using RTI Act to show how private primary schools in Gujarat, helped by an effete administration, are violating rules and regulations with impunity and cheating both pupils and teachers in the process.
Pandya’s RTI application compelled education department to reveal in June 2006 that there was only one school, out of 711 privately-run primary schools in Ahmedabad, which had a full complement of qualified teachers.
Over 60 per cent of the 5312 teachers did not have the BEd or Primary Teaching Certificate (PTC) required by law to be employed as teachers in primary schools.
Only 55 of 5312 teachers were paid salaries according to government norms; most of them were paid Rs 500 to 2500 a month.
Most of the schools were also not complying with provident fund rules and the requirement to pay salaries into employees’ bank accounts.
Pandya used the startling data in filing a PIL at Gujarat High Court.
State government assured the High Court through an affidavit that it would take appropriate action against the erring schools.
In March 2009, the government admitted that no action had been taken.
Pandya says he will again move the court to get the government to enforce rules and regulations on schools that have been playing with the future of young pupils.
His fight continues.

Details of the nomination

Vinod Pandya has been working since December 1985 as a primary school teacher at an old school run by Shreyas Foundation, a charitable trust in Ahmedabad.
He says exploitative working conditions at Shreyas school prompted him to start organizing his fellow teachers and other employees to enable them to collectively bargain for their rights.
The Shreyas Foundation Employees Union, of which Pandya is the Secretary, has since 1986 brought the school round to complying with rules and regulations with respect to salaries, provident fund, gratuity, work hours, and holidays.
Over those years, the school suspended Pandya four times for his trade union activities, but was compelled each time by courts to reinstate him.
Pandya is also chief secretary of Gujarat Rajya Talimi Snatak Samiti, a state-wide association of trained graduate teachers, and an office bearer of Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions.
He has also been actively associated with Jan Sangharsh Manch.
Pandya has over the years fought several court battles against flouting of norms by private schools and teachers’ schools.
These fights have taken place amid a frightful decline in standards of private primary schools with respect to terms of employment of teachers and other staff, teacher: pupil ratio, and academics.
In March 2006, Pandya filed an RTI application at the education department, demanding data about all government-recognized private primary schools in Ahmedabad such as number of pupils, number of teachers, number of unqualified teachers, salaries paid, PF details, and whether schools were paying salaries through bank accounts.
The information that he received was startling.
More than 60 percent of 5312 teachers were not qualified to be primary teachers; they had neither a BEd degree nor a Primary Teaching Certificate (PTC). Most of them were no more than secondary and senior secondary certificate holders.
Some schools had shown 14-15 year old teenagers as their teachers in data that had been approved by government’s school inspectors, showing that the entire inspection process had fallen victim to corruption.
The teacher: pupil ratio for most schools was appalling, in flagrant violation of what is prescribed by Bombay Primary School Education Act 1949, which applies to Gujarat state. There was only one teacher for 100 pupils in some schools.
There was also rampant exploitation of teachers.
Ninety eight percent of teachers were not getting salaries according to government norms; many of the so called teachers were paid no more than Rs 500 to 2500 a month.
Hardly any school had been complying with the requirement to pay salaries in their employees’ bank accounts or providing provident fund facility.
Pandya says the data showed what teachers like him already knew. Primary schools are fast turning into shops concerned only with making money – helped by unscrupulous school managements and venal government officials.
Most of the private primary schools in Gujarat also demand hefty donations from parents and arbitrarily hike fees without passing any benefits to the pupils or teachers – all in violation of law.
In August 2006, Pandya filed special civil application in the form of a PIL, through Jan Sangharsh Manch, at Gujarat High Court, submitting the data obtained through his RTI application and seeking direction to the government to take corrective measures.
The government then passed several resolutions, on court’s directions, to enforce the norms.
Since then there have been reports that some schools have started to appoint qualified teachers, but there has been no indication of government’s resolve to urgently and strictly enforce the law.
After government submitted a detailed affidavit to the high court promising to take action against erring schools, Pandya’s application was disposed of.
Since then, however, the government has done little to keep its promise to the court, says Pandya.
He filed another RTI application in February 2009, asking what action government had taken.
The government admitted in its March 2009 that it had yet to proceed against the erring schools.
Pandya continues to follow up the case and is planning to approach the High Court. He says Gujarat government’s failure to take action against non-compliant schools is tantamount to contempt of court.
Pandya has used RTI to show a mess in education that will affect future of millions of children.
It is a mess that afflicts education in other states as well.