STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Executive Members of Central body of J&K Private Schools Association Jammu (JKPSA) have expressed seriousness over the callous attitude of Government towards small private schools which are rendering yeomen services in rural, semi urban and urban areas since long. The members expressed dismay regarding postponement /suspension of the meeting which was scheduled to be held on January 12, 2022 vide Director School Education, Jammu’s office letter no: 42869-83 dated January 4, 2022 with Secretary School Education and main stakeholders viz Presidents of Private Schools Associations (JKBOSE/CBSE) and parents’ associations of private schools.
Speaking on the occasion, General Secretary PSA, Ajay Gupta said that all hopes to come out from exploitation & teething problems had collapsed with postponement of the scheduled meeting as the main objective of the meeting was to revisit draft of J&K Private Schools (Fixation, Determination
and regulation of Fee) Rules, 2021 and restoration order no.01 issued by FFC in 2019 by virtue of which private schools were authorised to increase only 6 per cent fee annually automatically. It may have been done deliberately because at this hour, all of us can adopt virtual mode for meetings than postponing or suspending the same, he added.
The members present in the meeting discussed a number of issues faced by them which included haplessness of most of private schools owners due to insufficient funds in paying timely emoluments to staff along with EMIs, insurance & problems in renewal of documents related to school buses which are out of roads since March 2020 etc.
Kamal Gupta, President JKPSA demanded immediate conduct meeting on online mode, as per the promise made by Principal Secretary to the Government, School Education department to redress the grievances of private schools owners and parents.
During the meeting, it was unanimously resolved that if government will not mitigate problems of private schools of J&K then all schools owners having yellow buses will hold a protest with yellow buses at their respective districts and hand-over buses, keys and documents to the District Development Commissioners of their respective districts while in Jammu, the protest will be launched in front of Divisional Commissioner’s office. Prominent among others who attended the meeting included Rameshwar Mengi (Vice President), Sanjeev Luthra, Ajay Singh, Sat Pal Mansotra, Kulwinder Singh, R P Sharma, Lal Chand Gandotra, Ashwani Khajuria, Naresh Kumar, Usha Jamwal, Kiran Raina, Mala Sharma, Raj Dulari, Siddheshwar Sadotra, Jatinder Heera, Naresh Kumar, Gourav Charak, Tariq Hussain Bali, Raj Dev Singh, Rishek Mengi, Dr M M Sharma, Deep Dayal, Bodh Raj, Satya Paul Khajuria, Vivek Chouhan, Gansara Singh and Subash Chib.