Srinagar: In one of the shocking decisions triggering fresh unease in Kashmir, majority of the private schools are demanding the dues from parents for the last four months when schools across Kashmir Valley remained shut.
Scores of parents rang up Kashmir Life to express their concern.
“It is totally an insane move,” said Mohammad Ramzan, a parent from Srinagar. “Since July, our kids are sitting home without availing any facility from schools. And yet, these private-run schools are demanding all the dues from us including bus fares.”
Ramzan said on Monday he received a call from DPS Budgam inviting him to the school to collect worksheet. “While queued up for over an hour, I was told that I must first get the fees clearance slip from a department concerned.” Upon enquiring he learned that the school demands all the dues from the parents since July, including bus fares before issuing the worksheets.
“For last four months,” Ramzan said, “everyone including our children are sitting home. There is hardly any business going on in valley and here are these shameless schools demanding dues from us.”
Notably, the DPS — the school that raked huge controversy over hijab issue before the civil uprising this summer — was seen at forefront demanding dues for ‘No Education’ since July. It is said that private schools have an apparent official backing regarding the decision. What makes these claims credulous though is government’s inability to act against these schools.
Mushtaq Shangloo, a private-school teacher, termed the move “insensible” and totally anti-people. Shangloo like many other private-run schools has been teaching in a voluntary school since ending July.
“Actually these school administration demand fees for filling their own coffers,” Shangloo said, “without paying any salary to teachers.”
The disclosure—that most of the private teachers are without salaries since July—has apparently dented the claims of some private school that are justifying the move saying “they are charging the fees to pay salaries to their teachers”.
People who rang up said that when there was no activity that would help majority of the people earn something, wherefrom will they pay for the service they never got. “The only people who earned their salary were the government employees, mostly without putting in any service,” one caller said, “the employees are in a position to pay but what happens to other classes who are employed in private sector?”
Before the latest move, the state of education in Kashmir remains mired in issues and controversies. With chief minister Ms Mehbooba Mufti terming education as the “biggest casualty” of the uprising on the first day of Jammu durbar, the burning of schools remain a big challenge for the state to tackle. Already, valley-wide protests led by students erupted against the examination announcement, prompting the students to say: “education and ink can’t flow together”.
With state giving second thoughts to examination dates, the militarised school campuses have remained another blatant issue for state to tackle. Detention of students—some under draconian Public Safety Act—remains another serious challenge to normal state of educational affairs in Kashmir.
In backdrop of these issues, the decision of private schools to demand dues has further spiked up the issue. (Kashmir Life)