Dr. Hari Dutt Shishu,
Dr Sheetal Badyal
JK Private Schools Coordination Committee in its 3rd Annual Conference held on dated 12th February 2020, in the Teachers Bhawan Jammu in the presence of K.K. Sharma, Advisor to LG of JK UT made a special recommendation. JKPSCC opined that any policy regarding schools education in JKUT should be framed taking all sides of the education into consideration with the due representation to the all concerned stakeholders. Any policy becomes a success when it has a potential to embrace all the sections of the society and all stakeholders. K.K. Sharma, Advisor of the Government having education Department principally agreed to the proposal and assured in his concluding remarks that a designated committee shall be framed in this regard which shall be mandated to loop in the promoters of the private schools before arriving at any policy decision. The different organizations and individual educators in the field of education in the state, more prominently, the Private Schools are catering to the people in the remotest parts of the UT where even the Government has failed to reach out. But to the utter shock and surprise, the present system of school education which is passing through a very critical phase due to the pandemic caused by Covid-19, has put the fate of the millions of the school children of private schools in UT in peril. It is imperative to frame the policy taking all sides of the education equation into the consideration as on one side are the policy makers and on the other side are those who would be implementing these policies and the most important side are those who would be directly affected because of the policy. The worse sufferers of the ongoing lockdown are the school going children and the schools catering to them, particularly the private schools, as there has been no communication from any Government agency with them in the UT till the time the author is writing this, other than a blanket notice of lock down.
The UT Government has been very proactive in reaching out to the students of the Government School through its Directorate both in Jammu and Kashmir by evolving different strategies for the online teaching to their students. And in a recent review meeting of the Education department, LG Sh. GC Murmu passed instructions to the department officials to ensure every possible help to the Government Schools so as its students. But a major chunk of the students, teachers and the promoters of the Private Schools were all in a fix and pained to see that nothing of their concern was addressed and there was not any reference of the Private Schools in the entire course of their meeting. The Private Schools of UT are equally concerned with this pandemic arisen out of the spread of Covid19 and voluntarily offered, in the Lockdown 1, all logistics at their disposal to the Government by writing to the Director School Education through their representative body, JKPSCC, resulting conversion of many Private Schools into makeshift Quarantine centers. But, as of now, when it has been more than a couple of months of Lock Down 1,there has been no specific guidelines for the private schools, so as to their students regarding their future course of action. The promoters of the private schools, at their own, are trying their level best to reach out to their students through online system but practically without their office in function, it has become a mockery. Since, functioning of the office with at least 30% of the presence of the staff ,is of paramount importance to regulate the classes even online. Moreover, allowing school offices to function with minimum required staff with the condition of proper social distancing may not be any threat of spread of this fatal virus when the Government has taken courage to open liquor shops in most part of the country. Although, Government has permitted stationery shops to provide books to the students through home delivery or visiting one customer at a time to the shop but practically, it is merely an eyewash and majority of the school children of the Private Schools are without text books, which is a major impediment even for online teaching. Instead, Government should have used the services of the Private Schools by deputing their own representative and inviting Book Sellers, within the school premises, ensuring proper social distancing and checking any pilferage or overcharging.
Livelihood of most of the teachers and the promoters of the Private Schools is in dilemma at this time of pandemic. Although there is a popular perception strengthened by some unconfirmed, superficial and frivolous allegations that the Private Schools are the money minting machines but the fact of the matter is the other way around. Its only 5% big corporate houses in the field, which cater to the creamy layer only, however, 95% schools are low budget and managing their affair on day today basis and 80% of the total in the rural areas are those dependent on the harvesting pattern of their clients. If the crop is good, you can have the fee otherwise you have to be satisfied with folded hands. And the onus of repaying the EMI, staff salary and other related expenditure lies upon the promoter. In face of some of these harsh realities , coupled with frivolous allegations and countless accusations in a section of media by some so called ‘social activists’ ,what would be the fate of these schools, their promoters, teachers therein, and the children depending upon them? Its not out of place to mention that if Government fails to view their grievances empathetically, the collapse of these self made assests of the society and their related employees is imminent. Government must come up with a concrete programme to save this most vulnerable group and their means of livelihood.
The other interesting thing worth mentioning, is the pure relation of faith between the promoter of the 95% low budget schools and the parent of the child studying therein. The School never debars a student of its due, in terms of education, even if the parent fails to pay fee in time and is able to pay it only during the harvesting season. The study of the child continues in spite of the parent’s financial crunch without any external intervention. But, if we analyze the source of various allegations, accusations and countless rumors and the venom spilled against the Private Schools, it will be surprising to see that those spreading canards have their kids taking education from the hardly 5% Schools run by the Corporate houses. Even the majority at the helm of affairs including bureaucrats, politicians and upper class are sending their kids only to these 5% schools. So, the policy makers should not bracket 95% Low Budget schools with the other 5% sponsored by big corporate houses. Hence, government and the policy makers should not deal with these 95% low budget Schools with a common yardstick.
So, in view of some of the facts mentioned here, Government should consider this aspect of most of the Private Schools and an acceptable policy for the survival of these schools and the teachers therein should be immediately evolved taking into loop, all the stakeholders . The parents of the children of these schools should understand the reality and should try to find a mutually acceptable solution with regard to the payment of the school fee, instead of getting misled by few rumor mongers in the society. Those at the helm of affairs should devise a mechanism to open, at least, the school offices with a minimum staff strength to regulate the online admissions as well as classes to save the career of the school children and also to ensure that those whose livelihood depends upon the functioning of the schools, should not be left to suffer in this critical phase, ever witnessed in this planet.
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