83 schools from the 916 schools including 178 secondary and 738 primary schools within the 9 education districts have been granted approval to organise fundraising this year.
This has been highlighted by Minister for Education, Aseri Radrodro while responding to a supplementary question by Opposition MP Faiyaz Koya on whether Radrodro is aware of any incidents where school fundraising is being done to supplement teachers' wages.
Radrodro says the purpose of fundraising is for the construction of additional classrooms, purchasing of building materials for the construction of quarters, building sick bay, the well-being of the children, considering the geographical locations of villages, settlements and workplaces, upgrading of school playgrounds, funds to construct multipurpose halls at the school premises, completion of pending school projects, raise funds for the ablution blocks, purchase of additional resources for school libraries and science labs, pay for school lunches for students in need, upgrading of the school's equipment, supporting resources and coaches to name a few.
The Minister further says the fundraising is only permitted for very special circumstances, as per Ministry's regulation and only one fundraising per school, per year, is allowed in the school premises.
While responding to a question by Opposition MP Ketan Lal about fundraising activities placing additional financial and emotional pressure on parents and students, especially in rural and low-income communities, Radrodro says request to conduct fundraising is on a voluntary basis where the application to conduct the fundraising must include an explanation why the free education grant is unable to accommodate the project.
Opposition MP Rinesh Sharma also says grants have not been given to the schools in a timely manner and claims the government does not have money.
He says fundraising has been used to basically be a form of income for the schools and claims there have been cases of teachers neglecting students and asks what the Ministry is doing to address this.
Radrodro says Sharma should come to his office and shed some light on it.
He reiterated that fundraising will be on a voluntary basis and adds that maybe Sharma should advise who has been texting him about this.
