Srinagar: Government on Friday said that while they are keen to work with private schools but they should ensure that norms fixed for them are followed religiously.
Minister for School Education, Haj and Auqaf and Tribal Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali made these comments while speaking about the functioning of private schools,.
“While the government is keen to work in harmony with private schools, yet it becomes the latter’s responsibility to ensure that norms fixed for private schools are adhered in letter and spirit,” Ali said.
He claimed that his office is getting frequent complaints that teachers working in private sector are not getting paid as per the set guidelines.
“There are some schools who are charging monthly fee from the parents for the vacation period, yet they deprive their staff of their salaries for the same time period, this is not acceptable,” he said.
Ali also said that charging parents’ transportation fee during vacations is totally unethically and unacceptable, and the practice should be immediately stopped.
Speaking on fee fixation issue of private schools, he said said schools should charge a monthly fee as per the facilities they provide, as per the infrastructure it has, and as per the quality of staff working for it.
“A school charging several thousand rupees as monthly fee should have facilities like proper swimming pool, a big playing field, good recreational facilities, a big library, a well-qualified staff, a computer laboratory, science laboratory and other features,” he said.
During the meeting, the Minister directed the concerned to ensure that no school in the State is allowed to run without having a proper registration from the department.
Zulfkar directed for issuing a circular mentioning the private schools using government resources, like their land, should reserve seats for students coming from a humble financial background of the society as per the directive issued by the apex court.
The Minister also directed the concerned to ensure that school property anywhere in the State is not used for any other purpose. He said it will be the discretion of the department to decide what it wants to do with it.
