Dr. Hari Dutt Shishu
“Private schools going unbridled.” “Private schools charging hefty amounts from the parents of their children.” “Private schools turned out to be shopping malls dealing all sorts of accessories including books, uniforms, notebooks, school bags etc.” Private schools have become commercial enterprises.” These are few prominent cover stories which we witness on every third day especially when it happens to be the beginning of academic session.
There is no doubt at all that these allegations have substance and to some extent justified. But, it is always unethical if we see only one aspect of the things {of private schools in this case} and remain ignorant of the others. If we deeply analyze the whole spectrum of private schools, we find hardly 5-7% of the schools which are being managed by the Industrial houses and the above cited allegations are partly true to them.
But we have another untold story of the rest of the 90-95 % of the schools in the state which have an endless list of sufferings and are passing through a very critical situation, struggling hard for their survival. These schools have been regularly facing the apathy from the powers that be from time to time. The tale of their suffering starts from the day of inception of the private schools when a young, energetic, and educated pass-out from the college/university take up the challenge with high spirit to start a school and approaches the financial institutions/banks for the loan under Self Employment Scheme. But to one’s surprise, banks have no such provision under any of the schemes of the Self Employment to finance these cases, educational qualification of the applicants notwithstanding. Moreover, nobody comes forward to stand as a guarantee for the educated unemployed. Somehow, after managing loan from the relatives and private financers and after acquiring a rented accommodation begins with a humble Play Way School, by enrolling the children from the humble families. The parents of the financially well off families wont risk the schooling of their children in the hands of a fresher. .The mechanism which the govt. has evolved to monitor the private schools is impractical and only an instrument of torture which the private schools suffer while passing through a long list of formalities and multi window system. On the one hand, there is pressure on the schools to maintain its track record in academics and overall performance to keep the reputation intact, on the other side; they have to suffer the torments of the authorities instead of any sort of appreciation. Moreover, these schools are put in trouble in the form of formalities including NOCs from DM, from Municipality, Labour Department, etc. and finally the recognition from the education department, which is granted temporarily for a period of not more than 2-3 years, and again the same process follows. And system of passing files from one table to the other in our state needs no explanation.
It is not out of place to mention that the government had been providing financial aid only to 146 no. of private schools in the State with the sole purpose of capacity building and to raise their infrastructure to meet up the parameters of the Government SRO-259A, which came into force in 1989.But In 2004, Govt. of J&K not merely stopped the aid given to a few schools, instead subsequently came with a tougher SRO 123, presently in vogue, putting the schools in more hardships. The irrationality of the present SRO 123 and its intimidating effect on the private schools can well be gauged from the fact that a school constructed under previous SRO-259-A,cannot be overnight changed into what is required under the SRO in vogue and hence, under the same pretexts the schools are being made scapegoats resulting in usual harassment at every level. Implementing the present SRO 123 in letter and spirit, is like putting round peg in the square hole. These govt. SRO’s are either made in isolation i.e., without the consent and consultation of all stakeholders or in consultation with only few industrial houses running the business of education, having no educational background, much to the discouragement of the ground level player particularly, the schools of the sub-urban and rural areas.
The sufferings of the private schools increase with the increase of the no. of classes. The schools are affiliated to JKBOSE, an autonomous organization, to monitor the educational institution in the State. The affiliation which is again temporary is granted to the schools by the BOARD OF SCHOOLS EDUCATION after following a proper laid down procedure which includes joint inspection by the officers from BOSE and from the Department of Education of the State. The affiliation committee comprises of the officers of the BOSE and the Education department of the State with the Chairman of the BOSE and Secretary, Schools Education at the helm of the affairs.
But again, the schools are made to go through a futile exercise of getting a separate order of recognition from the govt. by passing through the same number of formalities despite the govt. already being the part of inspection process of the schools following affiliation by BOSE. Therefore, the double exercise undergone for the same purpose is utterly irrational, ridiculous and sheer wastage of time, money and energy.
It is pertinent to mention that the GOI, for the achievement of universalisation of education as mandated by 86th amendment of the constitution of India, has launched so many schemes which includes SARAV SHIKSHA ABHIYAN, RASHTRIYA MADYAMIK SHIKSHA ABHIYAN, MID DAY MEAL, SPQEM, IEDSS, and SAKSHAR BHARAT etc.
It is amply clear that GOI is pumping multi-cores of rupees in every State to achieve the desired target of the universalisation of the education whereas, in the State like ours, private schools are not only contributing a lion’s share in education by generating their own resources but are doing a yeomen’s service by providing jobs to the unemployed youth and adding to its overall economy.
To cap it all we can say that the private schools have generated a tangible impact within the given resources and have excelled in every field as compared to their counterparts i.e., govt. schools which have the major share in the State Budget. The private schools are also charged all sort of funds by the govt. in the form of sports fund, red cross fund etc. but they are not informed for the competitions held out of these funds or very few blue-eyed are given participation. Finally, we can define the life of private schools in the state as an uncharted journey, an existential odyssey across unpredictable terrains littered with various bottlenecks in the system.
As the change of guard is inevitable in the State, it heralds an era of new hopes towards a positive and rational beginning.
(The author is former President Jammu University Research Scholar association.)
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