STATE TIMES NEWS
REASI: To discuss various grievances, a meeting of Private Schools of winter zone of District Reasi was convened by Ashwani Khajuria (District President) which was attended by designated members of Private schools of District Reasi. General Secretary of J&K Private Schools Association (JKPSA) Ajay Gupta was the special invitee on the occasion. The members urged the Government to formulate a policy for reopening of schools at the earliest.
During the meeting, members’ from different winter zones viz Chasana, Arnas, Pouni, Mahore etc. had come and highlighted various problems including financial deficit due to non-collection of fee, delay in disbursing regular monthly salary to employees even at the closure of academic session 2019- 20 of winter zone etc.
While speaking members from far flung areas said that it has become worrisome for them to run a private school due to low budget. The teachers which were engaged to continue community classes and online classes as per the guidelines issued by the Government in the wake of COVID -19 are now claiming their wages and threatening to lodge complaint against the school authorities for delay in salaries. They said that some schools might have paid the wages to their employees out of their reserve and collection of fee after announcement of unlock but most of schools till date have not paid even a single penny because most of the parents are reluctant to pay monthly fee as per circular no. 01 Edu of 2020 dated 14-05-2020.
Speaking on the occasion Ajay Gupta, briefed the members that government at all the levels has failed to facilitate this venture due to its irrational policies. “Only big schools which are being run by the government employees, capitalists, politicians will survive and small schools will vanish automatically. Even though all business establishments are now have come to track after the announcement of unlock-5.0 but till date government has not paid heed to grant financial assistance to those who are solely dependent on private schools and living in miserable condition since long,” he added.
Keeping all pros and cons in consideration, Ajay Gupta on behalf members appealed to the Government to formulate a strategy for reopening schools in Jammu and Kashmir on rotational basis as done in case of coaching centers / tutorials for larger interest of community.
Eminent among those who attended the meeting included Ajay Singh (Member Central body), Ram Parkash Sharma (President PSA Udhampur), Thomas Ooman, Siddheshwar Sadhotra, Ankush Verma, Nazir Ahmed, Majay Singh, Ranjit Singh, Shafi Malik, Jugal Kishore , Jatinder Heera, Chain Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Gansara Singh, Laddi Kumar and Javed Ahmed.