SRINAGAR: National President Private Schools Association & Child Welfare Association (PSACWA), Syed Shamael Ahmed has expressed his serious concern over the unnecessary interference and intervention of various government departments in the smooth functioning of private educational institutions in Jammu and Kashmir.
Shamael said that throughout the country, private schools are being provided sufficient space to function normally. This, he said, is because private schools are considered as supplements and compliments to the government system of education and not competitors as “I have seen happening in Jammu and Kashmir”.
He said that he was surprised to see that private schools are being harassed unnecessarily on one pretext or the other.
Shamael said that private schools are being asked to get various NOCs from other government departments, which are otherwise not a part of the process as per rules and regulations in vogue across the country. In Jammu and Kashmir, he said schools are being asked to get NOC from the Pollution Control board, PHE, Fire and Emergency, Municipality etc while there is no such NOC required for government-run schools.
The national president said that the role of FFRC in Jammu and Kashmir is quite against the private schools as the committee, which is otherwise meant for regularization of fee structure and monitoring the unnecessary profiteering, is indulging in various matters that are not under its domain. “It is quite discriminating that there is the same set of children, the same set of curriculum and same academic calendar but two different sets of rules exist for private and government-run schools,” he said. “Getting a NOC from any government department takes months and sometimes years together for private schools and by that time, the period of recognition or registration and up-gradation gets overdated.”
Shamael urged the Government to ease the process and provide the private schools a congenial atmosphere to work so that quality education is imparted to lakhs of children enrolled in private schools across Jammu and Kashmir.
On the implementation of the New Education Policy in Jammu and Kashmir, Shamael said that there are numerous challenges for this policy, which need to be taken into account before hurrying for its early implementation. He said that the government of Jammu and Kashmir should ensure that the school system is in tandem with the features of NEP and all basic requirements are fulfilled beforehand.
Like other sectors, he said private schools have suffered tremendously on the financial front owing to the Covid19 pandemic. He said that more than two hundred schools have closed down in Jammu and Kashmir due to financial crises and many more are on the verge of closure. He urged the LG administration to sanction an economic package for budget private schools so that they can survive and continue their struggle for imparting quality education.
