Parents in Kashmir are increasingly turning to private schools, citing better outcomes and opportunities, even as policymakers face criticism for neglecting systemic reforms and burdening institutions with regulatory hurdles and biases, reports Babra Wani
When Zahoor Ahmad and his wife migrated to Srinagar along with their two children, their main concern was to get them the best education possible. Hailing from a remote South Kashmir village, the couple studied in state-run Urdu-medium schools. For their children, however, they dreamt of English-medium education
A Dream
“Back then, there were no private schools; even if there were a few, they were expensive,” Zahoor remarked, “So, we decided to earn as much as we could, to suffice the educational needs of our children. My wife always wanted our children to study in an English medium school.”
The couple then migrated to Srinagar. After moving, they started teaching their children the basic alphabet and numbers to get them through the rigorous admission process.
“We first went to a very named and famed school to get our elder daughter admitted. But they had issues with her date of birth. She was younger and they denied her admission,” the father said.
Later, they approached another school, where their daughter was finally admitted. This school had a policy that children should know how to speak Urdu language. Zahoor’s wife had trained her daughter in spoken Urdu, and thus she made it to the list.
What followed was exposure to a lot of things, both in academics and the extracurricular activities that Zahoor and his wife had missed during their childhood.
It was almost 20 years ago. Now Zahoor’s elder daughter is studying English literature at a reputed university in India, while his son is in an engineering school.
The family credits the school for their success and exposure to the external world.
“Had I not studied there, trust me, I would not even know what to do in life,” Zahoor’s daughter, Umaira, remarked, “They literally taught me how to live life. If I can write or read or speak in good English, it is because of them.”
The Shift
The private schools in Jammu and Kashmir have been mushrooming over the past few decades. A pure demand and supply issue, experts believe that parents prefer to enrol their children in private schools. In Srinagar, reports suggest more than 80 per cent of students are enrolled in private schools, with state state-run network managing the rest.
Jammu and Kashmir operates a vast schooling network of 24,137 institutions, 18,724 of them run by the government. Over 13.5 lakh students are enrolled in public schools, but a steady shift towards private institutions (currently educating over 12.6 lakh students) suggests rising public dissatisfaction with government education.
The State of Education
“Education in Jammu and Kashmir has never been child-centric. It has always been political-centric, employee-centric, or perception-centric. Policies should be logic-driven and evidence-based, but sadly, that has never been the case here,” remarked GN Var, President Private Schools Association in Kashmir. “Except for Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah’s Education Act of 1951, which introduced compulsory schooling, no chief minister truly had a vision for education.”
Var remarked that only during that era was education made compulsory. All the surveys, be it national or local, put Jammu and Kashmir at the lowest, he said. Once, he said, there were barely 10 to 15 thousand children out of school, a number that has soared to over a lakh.
The Cost of Learning
Asserting that the government must handhold the private sector because the goal is the same. However, 215 schools were recently attached without considering the stakeholders, he regretted. “Government may have their own policies and thought process, but to take any decision, it is important to take all the stakeholders on board and to talk to them to find a sustainable solution for the problem.”
“When a poor child goes to a private school, everything comes at a price: uniforms, books, fees. But when the same child goes to a government school, he gets uniforms, books, and even scholarships free of cost,” he said, asserting that the private sector does extend facilities to underprivileged students at no cost.
The most important issue, he pointed out, is that education has been politicised. “If there is a private school, they are asked for multiple NOCs about the safety of their buildings, their playgrounds, fire safety, while on the other hand, government schools are not asked for these.”
Falling Numbers
In Jammu and Kashmir, the number of schools has been declining. Over 4,600 government schools have shut down in recent years. Data suggests there are 24137 schools in Kashmir, out of which 18724 schools are government-run and the remaining 5413 are privately-run.
In 2019-20, Jammu and Kashmir had 5585 private schools. That number has decreased every year since, falling to 5649 in 2020-21, then to 5526 in 2021-22, 5407 in 2022-23, and finally 5452 in 2023-24. Although the data shows a marginal recovery of 45 schools in the last academic year, the overall trajectory remains downward.
The Private School Perspective
In the past, private schools saw 52 per cent of new admissions, but now the percentage has fallen to 46 per cent. “There have been orders issued after 2019 that many schools were affected. More than 550 schools in pertinence to the state land became a victim of those orders and policies that had no logic to them,” according to Var. “Lakhs of students suffered. However, we protested tirelessly for these children to appear in their exams.”
Var claims that the survival of private schools is nothing short of a miracle. The government had approximately 23800 schools, which had almost 12 lakh students enrolled. “Then we have approximately 5800 schools again with an enrolment of more than 12 lakh students.”
He added that government surveys are often biased. “In Srinagar city only, 80 per cent of children study in private schools, yet when they pass 10th grade, many take dummy admissions in government schools. When results are declared, the government projects them as its own achievement. This is pure deception.”
The data is always tampered with, Var added. “Private-run middle schools, primary schools are higher in number. In high schools, too, we have more enrolments. The dummy admissions do not count at all. And still the government takes credit for these achievements when it is the students from private schools shining in government schools.”
“There should be an education regulating authority for both government and private schools,” Var added, “Since the policies by the government are biased in favour of government schools and against private schools, a third party must be there. The government sector is a policy maker, regulator, judge and competitor, how is it possible?”
Var praised the 1951 Act introduced by Sheikh Abdullah, terming it a landmark piece of legislation. The Act was further reinforced in 2002 to promote universal elementary education and support private school growth.
He stated that it is unfortunate that there is no representation of private school bodies during the policy-making and decision-making processes. “People who have enrolled their children in 80 per cent of private schools in cities but have no role in policy formulation. And people whose children are not studying in the cities, even 20 per cent are formulating policies and are hailed on the stages.” Decisions, he said, are made by bureaucrats from revenue, tax, or even wildlife departments, none of whom understand education. “Education is not on the right track.”
The losses, he said, will make themselves known in the coming years.
Government Investment
Earlier this year, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo chaired a high-level review of the School Education Department, stressing that the quality of education must reflect the scale of public investment, pegged at over Rs 11,000 crore for the 2025–26 financial year.
With a staggering annual spend of nearly Rs 1 lakh per student in government schools, well above the national average, Dulloo said the focus must now shift to outcomes, starting with teacher accountability and efficient use of classroom time. He pointedly remarked that no amount of infrastructure or technology would yield results unless teachers demonstrate commitment and creativity in the classroom.
The top officer suggested linking teacher salaries to their attendance, emphasising that habitual tardiness or absenteeism, especially leaving schools for personal work, should not go unchecked. Officials informed that the JK Attendance App, a geo-tagged facial recognition system, is already operational and used by 1.14 lakh school employees.
“Government spends nearly Rs 1 lakh annually on each child, translating to over Rs 17,500 per month, whereas the average monthly cost per child in private schools is just Rs 530,” Var said. He explained that more than 60 per cent of students study in trust-run private schools where fees range from Rs 150 to Rs 600 per month. Around 20 per cent are enrolled in community-run initiatives with similar fee structures. Schools run by unemployed youth who have taken loans usually charge between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500, while elite institutions set their fees above Rs 2,500. Only a handful of schools charge above Rs 3,000, and perhaps one or two exceed Rs 7,000. “On average, the monthly expenditure per student in private schools remains far lower than in government schools,” Var added.
Employment and Curriculum
The minimum investment in the private schools is estimated to be more than Rs 20,000 crore. Private schools in Jammu and Kashmir provide direct employment to around 100,000 people, including both teaching and non-teaching staff. Eighty per cent of these teaching staff are women with substantial academic qualifications.
Every year, about 6,000 new teachers are appointed in the private sector. “No other sector, including tourism, matches education in terms of reach and employment.”
In Kashmir, Var lamented, “if a person wants to establish an industry, the government is very supportive, but when it comes to private schools, rather than supporting them, they are harassed.”
The curriculum in Jammu and Kashmir schools has remained a crisis. “The books that are taught in private schools are better than those in government schools. All the books are in accordance with the rules and regulations of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF). The print quality and the content quality are different.” Ironically, the policymakers of Kashmir education are headed by people who come from educational backgrounds of IFS, IRF, Var said.
“The government is now talking about implementing pre-primary and kindergarten as part of NEP 2020. But private schools in Kashmir had already introduced nursery and kindergarten 40 years ago. It took the government decades to catch up,” Var added, “We have an evident example that the space given to private schools, society will prosper. The private sector is always encouraged in the developed countries, while in underdeveloped countries, the private sector is always discouraged. The private schools need to be encouraged to fight this dichotomy.”
Infrastructure
The transport wing of private schools is also significant. “We have long demanded a proper system to support school transportation, perhaps even an app that allows children to reach schools irrespective of which vehicle is available. At present, our vehicles are burdened with all kinds of taxes, and whenever we attempt to create our own solutions, we are questioned,” Var said. “If managed properly, private school transportation could function like a corporation in itself. But currently, school vehicles operate only in the mornings and evenings, lying idle for the rest of the day, which leads to heavy losses. From a commercial perspective, this means wasted resources and finances. And if we propose any substantial reform, the government refuses to allow or permit it.”
The same is the case with the buildings. For six to eight hours, these buildings are occupied, and then they are ghost towns. Why can’t these, as well as government school buildings, be reused when classes are not operational?
The National Education Policy
Var described Chapter 8 of the National Education Policy as the most significant, noting that it emphasises the goal of a regulatory system for school education that continually improves learning outcomes. “It must not overly restrict schools; prevent innovation, or demoralise teachers, principals, and students. Regulation should empower schools and teachers with trust, enabling them to strive for excellence and perform at their very best, while maintaining the integrity of the system through complete transparency and full public disclosure of finances, procedures, and outcomes,” the policy states.
Var said schools should be evaluated on the basis of educational outcomes. “The policy asks states and union territories to establish State School Standards Authorities (SSSAs) to regulate all schools,” he explained.
“The government has never taken the education sector seriously. Schools and education become the first casualty whenever anything goes wrong. Outside Jammu and Kashmir, a student on average receives 230 working days per year, but in Kashmir it is only 140–150 days, even though the Board of Education requires 180,” Var pointed out.
He credited the Omar Abdullah government for shifting the academic calendar and examination schedule, but added that challenges remain. “Recently, I met Omar again and discussed issues such as how even a school that has been functioning for over a century is asked to produce a police verification and a political non-involvement certificate, requirements unique to Kashmir and not applicable even in Jammu. Another major problem is the absence of a dedicated education board,” Var said.
Looking Ahead
“Education in Kashmir urgently requires a regulatory authority independent of the Education Department. The same body cannot act as regulator, service provider, and competitor at the same time,” Var said.
He stressed that it was the private schools sector that kept education alive when conditions in Kashmir were unfavourable. “Education, institutions, and teachers deserve respect,” he added.
On average, the cost of private schooling in Kashmir remains lower than in most other parts of the country.
“Private education has no real space here; there is no representation and no institutional bodies for it. The core issue is that education is not child-centric but perception-centric. We have no role in policy formulation, and so our contributions remain unrecognised. The autonomy granted to schools by the Supreme Court has been steadily eroded. Post-2019 policies and amendments have encroached on the functioning of private schools, and today multiple departments interfere in our affairs,” Var concluded.
Yet despite these challenges, for parents like Zahoor Ahmad, the choice remains unchanged: private schools still offer a promise of the future that government schools have not delivered.
