Prefectships for sale at Royal College

Monday, 2 September 2024 01:45 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A few parents (handpicked by Royal College administration) recently collected Rs. 6,000 each from 83 Grade 5 students for the 2024 investiture ceremony of prefects at the Royal College Primary to be held soon. Last year, a corresponding amount of Rs. 5,000 each was collected from 214 students (half of the entire grade, appointed barely a day before leaving the Primary to Middle School). Additionally, this year, the middle school too had charged Rs. 10,000 each from 93 Grade 9 students for being appointed as Junior Prefects.

These funds are collected with zero transparency and parents have not been issued any receipts as acknowledgment. This is just one occasion where millions of Rupees are collected every few months, on one pretext or another, by a coterie of parents playing hand in the glove with a few corrupt teachers who never get transferred out after the stipulated 10 years. These illegal and improper collections allow the few chosen parents to keep vast sums of monies with them for weeks and months without accounting or auditing with the tacit approval by the Principal and his Deputies, clearly violating the Ministry’s circulars. As I understand, numerous complaints have been lodged with the Secretary Education, who too seems to be powerless against the Royal College mafia!

Such illegal practices seriously affect the talented and deserving students, whose parents are unable to contribute much beyond the compulsory annual facilities fees. Furthermore, there are parents who, standing upon principles, refuse to participate in these lopsided selections highly tilted towards the rich kids, whose parents are waiting to pay any price. At Royal College Primary, it’s the same set of children who get selected for every activity. This is naked bribery and corruption with the Principal and his Deputies always turning a blind eye.

Over the years, Royal College had maintained very high standards when appointing its prefects and those brilliant young leaders earned much respect wherever they went. They were much sought after by the corporate world living up to their reputation and reaching pinnacles wherever they went. The biggest damage this warped selection process has done to the school is causing irreparable damage to the longstanding reputation of its prefects. It’s time all the caring alumni urged the school administration to stop selling its prefectships to the richest and instead, to make appointments purely on merit and without any price tags.

We have all been watching silently how a handful of corrupt teachers and administrators have manipulated the system making millions on every simple event (through their chosen agents) for a long time. Isn’t it time to end it?

From a disappointed and irate parent