NHRC Demands Action Taken Report From Centre, States Over Expensive Private Books in CBSE Schools

CBSE NCERT: The NHRC has come out with detailed notices, calling for an Action Taken Report (ATR) by the Ministry of Education, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), as well as the Chief Secretaries of all states/Union Territories. It came to know about the widespread public complaints of private schools deliberately ignoring the subsidized educational literature provided by the government and imposing highly costly books published by some private companies. It has placed a heavy burden on the shoulders of the poor, forcing them to bear the brunt of skyrocketing elementary school expenses. 

The issue was taken up under suo motu cognizance by the Commission. It has emphasized that compelling parents to buy costly books from private publishing houses, as opposed to using the normal NCERT/SCERT textbooks, may amount to a breach of the Right to Education (RTE) Act and NEP 2020, which both emphasize cost-effective and accessible learning. A deadline has been set by the educational authorities to respond with a detailed structure report. The NHRC is particularly keen on knowing the regulatory mechanism followed to check the price of textbooks, as well as the measures to punish those who violate the rules. 

CBSE NCERT: Official Website

For monitoring official instructions, checking educational regulations, or lodging complaints, the apex portals to be visited are:

• nhrc.nic.in

• ncert.nic.in

Critical Regulatory Violations Flagged by NHRC

A NHRC bench recognized the issue formally under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, highlighting the serious breaches of policy that have occurred due to commercialization of textbook prices: 

• Violation of the RTE Act (Section 29): The RTE Act states that the syllabus and textbooks must be decided by the concerned educational authority (NCERT or SCERT). Ignoring this provision leads to creation of a parallel education system that is unauthorized and commercialized. 

• Breaches of the NEP 2020 Mandates of Equality: NEP has laid great emphasis on making education accessible and inexpensive. Despite this, while the cost of a set of NCERT books for Class 1-8 lies between ₹200 and ₹700 only, the same set published by private companies costs anywhere between ₹3,000 and ₹10,000.

• Violation of the National School Bag Policy, 2020: Reference books, bulky workbooks, and customized diaries are often included in the pack supplied to students by private schools. This contributes to an excess load in the bag carried by young children.