Exercise aimed to ensure exams of affected students
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Dec 16: In order to rescue the career of thousands of students enrolled with the defaulting schools, J&K Board of School Education has started tagging of these students with the nearby Government institutions so that their exams could be conducted.
Official sources told the Excelsior that exercise in this connection has been set into motion to ensure that these students may not suffer because of failure of their institutions in getting affiliation with J&K BOSE renewed, mostly because of their campus situated on Government land.
Having enrollment of approximately 4500 students of class 10th, 11th and 12th, there are more than 300 such private schools across Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory, which are no more affiliated with the Board because of their failure to fulfill the required conditions for renewal of their affiliation.
Pertinent to mention that in terms of the Statutory Order (S.O.) number 177, dated 15.04.2022 , additional conditions have been imposed, amongst others, for purposes of registration, recognition and affiliation of the schools. This additional condition mandates schools to obtain a certificate from the concerned Tehsildar regarding land title or lease deed upon which the school is situated. The S.O. also provides for de-recognizing those schools and taking over their management in case they fail to produce the requisite land title certificate.
In pursuance of the amendments made in the rules on April 15, the Joint Secretaries of J&K Board of School Education for Jammu Division and Kashmir Division had issued circular and notification asking all private schools (High Schools and (Higher Secondary Schools) for furnishing NOC regarding land use of school from the Revenue Department.
Consequent upon the Statutory Order and additional condition of furnishing land use NOC, a big number of private schools have failed to qualify for renewal of their lapsed affiliation with the JKBOSE.
According to the sources, there are more than 300 such private High Schools and Higher Secondary Schools at present and this number is likely to go up soon with the lapse of their affiliation tenure, which is five years in case of old schools and three years for new ones.
As these disaffiliated schools are no more eligible to get their students registered with JKBOSE for exams, future of thousands of such students was in peril with the result various political parties in Kashmir alleged that JKBOSE had refused to accept examination forms from students of class 10 enrolled in private schools established on State land.
Denying these allegations, JKBOSE Chairman, Dr Prikshit Singh Manhas told the Excelsior that every student would be allowed to sit in the examination and they should not panic. “We will ensure that each student is allowed to appear in the examination and accordingly, the candidates who are facing the issue because of the fault on part of their institution are being tagged to the nearest Government schools,” he said and reminded that the similar issue was faced last year and to save the career of students, the School Education Department had filed a Civil Miscellaneous Petition before the High Court, which allowed tagging of students.
While initiating the process of tagging the enrolled students, Dr Prikshit further informed that the defaulting schools are being directed not to admit any student from class 9th onwards till extension in affiliation is granted to the institution by JKBOSE.
It may be recalled that while amending the rules under the Education Act, 2002, to provide for fresh guidelines relating to the use of land and building structures by private schools in the Union Territory, the Government had ordered that all those private schools which are established on the State land should close the schooling of the enrolled children with immediate effect. The schools were also asked to issue school leaving certificates to students so that they could be accommodated in Government schools subject to their parent’s consent.
However, the aggrieved private schools had filed different writ petitions before the High Court of J&K and Ladakh, which passed different directions on these matters, including order to maintain the status quo.
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