In Jaipur, parents draft new rules amid pandemic asking private schools to allow students to recycle books

In an interesting development, parents in Jaipur are asking schools to follow New Normal norms amid pandemic where students should be allowed to use recycled books. They said a book bank should be created in the school where books can be preserved for coming academic session and the parents should be allowed to buy stationery and uniform material from outside where they can get school stuff for their kids at 30 per cent cheaper price.

A memorandum submitted by Modern School Parents Forum to the school principal neatly highlights all these points requesting the management to come forward and think differently during Covid-19 pandemic as each person's income has been hit hard.

One of the points in the charter says students should not be forced to buy new books to ensure trees are not being cut for paper. In fact, many parents have come out with a solution to bring out a book bank in schools to ensure smooth recycling of books in consecutive academic sessions.

The other points say that the uniform and textbook sales should not be limited to a school's outlet but the students should be allowed to buy it from anywhere parents get a decent deal.

Schools usually charge 25-30 per cent higher for uniforms and books as compared to the market price.

Further, the school syllabus should not be changed each year and the practice of book recycling should be promoted to ensure greenery is not compromised for the sake of generating paper.

The forum asked the management to build a dialogue with parents association and then announce new measures looking at parents' plight in pandemic time.

They also urged the schools to waive off the smart class fee being charged by them as there are no such classes being run.

Sunil Yadav, All Rajasthan Private School Parents Forum President, told IANS, "We are also protesting against the online classes of primary students who are not at all gaining anything out of it. On the contrary, the long screen hours are posing danger to their eyes. Further, it is again putting a dent on parents' pockets for we need to have high-speed internet, gadgets and proper set up for students."