Jammu private schools flout court orders

Jammu: Last year, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had directed six Srinagar-based private schools to waive off the tuition fee and bus fare of the students for September and October when these schools were closed due to the flash floods.

Violating the orders given by the High Court, the private schools are asking the parents to deposit the fee by sending them the SMS that reads: "In pursuance of the court order No. OWP-1182/2013 dated 1st June 2015, you are advised to deposit fee for the month of September, October 2014 immediately. In case your fee was adjusted, kindly redeposit."

The Additional Advocate General (AAG), Advocate Shabir Ahmad Naik, unveils the greed of the private schools by confirming that there is no modified order from the Jammu and Kashmir High Court asking schools to charge the fee for the months of September and October 2014.

The private players in the field of education are not ready to consider even a natural calamity as a reason to stop extracting money from the parents. Their counterparts in rural areas, aspiring to do the same, and wrongly so, have become a matter of great concern for the innocent villagers who send their children to private schools with hopes of a better future.

Two hundred and fifty kilometers from Jammu, in the border district of Poonch, which is struggling hard for development and peace, private schools are doing no good. Cases have been reported that the private schools are violating the safety standards and in spite of number of subsequent orders, notifications and SRO's issued from the Jammu and Kashmir Government, the authorities have failed to curb down the menace of all those private schools functioning illegally without providing healthy infrastructure to the students studying in these private schools.

In Surankote Block, a private school is being operated under tin sheds. With no facilities of drinking water and toilets, students have to bear the extreme weather conditions under the tin sheets that provide no protection during summer, winter, snow and rainfall.

As per official reports, there are 2,753 private schools functioning in Jammu province out of which 1,067 schools are functioning at primary level, 868 at middle level, 556 at high and 262 at higher secondary level, according to a report published in a regional newspaper.

A report published in a regional daily, Early Times, reveals that over 75 percent of private schools are granted recognition up to primary and middle standard only. Although such schools have no authority to continue higher classes beyond the recognition, they continue to fool the innocent villagers. Since there is no prescribed fee structure from the department of education, they charge as much money from the parents as they like. These private institutions are flouting the SRO 123 in broad daylight.

SRO 123, issued under Section 29 of the Jammu and Kashmir School Education Act, 2002, was enacted by the state government to restrain escalation of private schools and constitution of parents' associations for a decision-making processes via enhancement of fee.

The guidelines of SRO 123 are based on the parameters of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which facilitates opening of primary schools, upgrade of primary to middle schools and middle schools to high schools. Under SRO 123, private players are asked to establish their schools in noise-free zones and ensure a space of one to two sq. meters per student in classrooms.

For middle and primary schools, the order reads that the principal's room should be of a minimum area of 150 sq. meters and a staff room of 100 sq. meters. For high schools, the existence of assembly and examination halls of appropriate specifications is important. For higher secondary schools, the provision of separate science laboratories for all subjects is mandatory. However, the most important is the need for the school authorities to set up parents' associations for decision-making processes.

"In majority of the cases, none of the schools have constituted the parents' associations and have made the fee enhancement process completely a one-sided affair which is irking parents in general here," said Mohammad Aslam, a parent from Surankote block.

The situation of government schools is no better. A recent survey released by Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) has revealed that as many as 39 schools in J&K are running without proper buildings and 38 even lack proper classrooms. The survey carried out in the year 2014-2015 in 7,262 villages of the state also underlines that 2,667 schools operate without water facilities and 21,381 out of 29,047 schools have no electricity connections.

The Charkha Development Communication Network feels that the dismal state of education is reflected through its literacy rate which as per Census 2011 is 66.7 percent while in 2001 it was 51.19 percent. Clearly, the future of children is at stake if the status quo remains unchanged.

The views expressed in the article are that of the author Abdul Basit.