Kerala Child Rights Commission urges authorities to pass orders barring school teachers from engaging in private tuitions

The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has said that no school teachers in the state should engage in private tuitions or private teaching activity, The Hindu reported. Involvement in any such activity should be prevented strictly in the state, the commission said, directing the General Education Secretary and the Director of General Education to pass orders in this regard. 

The commission, which did not pass a specific order in the case, said that school teachers taking private tuitions is a violation of Section 28 of the Right to Education Act. It was acting on a petition filed by a resident of Nedumudi in Alappuzha.

The petitioner reportedly alleged that a tuition centre named Phoenix, located near Poopalli Junction in Nedumudi, was conducting online classes during April-May in the 2020-21 academic year, which was declared as summer vacation by the government. The tuition centre was run by an aided school teacher and his kin. Furthermore, the petitioner claimed that many government and aided school teachers took classes there. The centre was not registered with the panchayat.

The panchayat secretary, in a report to the commission, reportedly said that the tuition centre was functioning without the panchayat’s permission. In the 2020-21 academic year, in the wake of COVID-19 protocols, no tuition centres were given permission to function and Phoenix conducted only online classes during this time. The centre's principal also attested that only online classes were held and no COVID-19 guidelines were violated, the daily reported.