Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Recently Arvind Kejriwal lead Government in Delhi declared that it will enforce 25 percent reservation for poor students in private schools. Delhi Chief Minister has not only given clear cut orders towards reservation but he has abolished all the quota and donations system as well which has been prevalent and quite common in Delhi from last several decades. This pro people and historic decision of Delhi Government needs an applause. Jammu & Kashmir must also follow Delhi model to implement the Supreme Court’s 2012 directive vis a via giving 25 % reservation to children belonging to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of the society.
Supreme court’s order :
In April 2012 the Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act in its landmark judgement taking a child-centric view of the law. The government’s plan to introduce social inclusiveness in primary education has prevailed through this judgement and all schools, except unaided minority institutions, will have to admit at least 25% students from economically weaker sections of the society. “The Act is constitutional and valid,” ruled the court while issuing this order. According to this judgement the supreme court order on 25 % reservation will apply to unaided minority schools. The law was challenged by several private schools shortly after the Government of India introduced Right to Education (RTE) in April 2010. The Act envisages that all poor children aged 6-14 years be given free and compulsory education within their neighbourhood. This included unaided minority institutions, which the court removed from the ambit of the law. RTE Act is operational in most of the states and J&K state is yet to enact this type of law. It is given to understand that Education Ministry in J&K had recently come out with a draft act which they were planning to introduce in the state legislature but due to political crises in state at this point of time , the matter may get delayed for some months. The Government usually spends Rs 500-1,500 on a child per month in a Government school. Education in private schools is much costlier and some schools even charge Rs 5000 to 6000 also in J&K. The government will reimburse private schools for admitting poor students but only to the extent of the expenditure it will incur if those students were to be schooled in a Government school.
Govt aided Pvt schools in J&K :
Many educational institutions in Jammu & Kashmir especially the “Christian Missionary” schools have been provided state land on lease by the Government on nominal subsidized annual rent. The fact that only two or three prominent Christian missionary schools based in Srinagar are paying less than Rs 20,000 (twenty thousand) towards the Government as annual rent in lieu of the land provided by the Government under J&K Land Grants Act. One missionary school pays mere Rs 3200/- per year for a land measuring 32 kanals located in the heart of city. Another similar school pays Rs 20,000 per year for 95 kanals of land located in an area where in the land rate as on date is Rs 10 crore per kanal. Many decades back Government provided state land to these schools under some agreement which includes providing of free education to Economically Weaker students. The details of annual rent and amount of land allocated to these prominent schools has been already revealed by the Revenue department authorities under Right to Information Act (RTI). During October 2012 the Legislative Council provided this information to the then Member of Legislative Council (MLC) from Srinagar Mohammad Ashraf Mir who is right now an MLA from Sonwar Srinagar and was holding the charge of Minister of State (MoS) for Urban Development and Power until recently.
The rent these missionary schools are paying towards the Government annually is 30 to 40 times less than the admission fees they are charging from the students. There is one missionary school which has not at all paid the annual rent (Rs 12,000 per year) from the last more than 35 years. Irony is that from 1980 till date the annual rent hasn’t been fixed. These details have been provided by Tehsildar Nazool Srinagar to an information seeker under J&K RTI Act 2009 few years back. The land provided by the Government to three Christian missionary schools in Srinagar on lease alone measures 212 kanals which is located in posh areas of Srinagar city like Raj Bagh, Lal Chowk (Sheikh Bagh) and Ram Munshi Bagh (Sonwar) . The market value of this prime land as on date is estimated to be more than Rs 1000 Crores (One thousand crores). Having been allocated such a huge chunk of state almost free of cost by Government, how dare these school authorities cannot admit 25 % of poor students in their schools ? These schools are openly violating Supreme Court orders and the Government needs to take them to task.
It is the citizens of state whose land worth Rs 1000 Crores is being utilized by the missionary schools, but when the same citizens demand accountability from the managements of these institutions, the school authorities behave in such a way as if they are the sole custodians of the land which is under their control.
Conclusion :
The role played by private schools especially the “Christian Missionary” schools in J&K is really appreciable. They began their work with a mission but from last several years , the missionary charisma has almost faded. How can Govt fund private school who make huge profits out of public money ? How can Government support profitable institutions and provide them land etc which costs millions and in return these schools do not even facilitate free education for a handful of poor children belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society ? Some missionary schools have no missionary zeal now and have become Private limited companies. Under these circumstances the authorities need to act . I appeal Governor N N Vohra to personally intervene into this issue and ensure that 25 % reservation is given to poor children in private schools especially in those schools who have been given huge amount of state land almost free of cost.
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