Private Schools Halt Fee Waiver Scheme After ‘Misuse’, ‘Attacks’

Srinagar, June 30: Private Schools’ Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) has termed the misusing of fee waiver scheme offered by PSAJK as extremely unfortunate as all parents have altogether stopped depositing any kind of fee resulting in a situation where hundreds of schools are in danger of closure.
The Association said that PSAJK had offered to help the society in the shape of fee waiver scheme for extremely affected class of the society but some people are using the opportunity to completely boycott paying of fee to schools. “There was no government order regarding any kind of fee waiver. In fact we were allowed to collect fee. In a good faith to help the society we decided to offer some kind of reprieve to people. But the irony is that few lobbies have hijacked the entire scheme,” said a spokesman of PSAJK. “Some vested interests and greedy people have completely twisted the facts. They are telling people that 100 % fee is waived to 100 % students. In that case our education sector in is danger of collapse.”
The Association said that rich people are infringing on the rights of deserving families. “The situation is such that government employees and other class of people who had sufficient income during the lockdown are blatantly refusing to pay any kind of fee. In some cases poor parents paid fee without complaint and rich parents refused to pay even a penny,” said the spokesman. “Just a day after fee waiver scheme was announced, the entire fee collection by Schools have dived from 50-60% to absolute zero. Nobody is paying fee. Plus parents are not even ready for verification which is mandatory for anybody to be declared as a deserving candidate. They have taken everything for granted.”
The Association termed the situation alarming which could have bleak consequences for the future. “In some cases our schools have been attacked by aggressive parents who refuse to give any kind of fee or give logic towards their behaviour,” said the spokesperson.
The Association blamed the situation on certain parents and groups who mislead the people and were unable to explain the real situation to them. “Some people twisted the facts and took undue benefit of our noble gesture. At a time when government doesn’t help even affected person we had come forward,” said the spokesperson.
The Association said that on one hand people are ready to pay one year fee in advance to big schools and missionary schools, but on the other hand they simply refuse to pay fee to local schools who run on limited budget.
The Association in executive committee meeting today decided to halt the entire fee waiver scheme in the larger interests of saving the fragile private education sector. “The executive council meeting was attended by all the members who decided unanimously to halt the entire fee waiver scheme. Parents have been asked to deposit the fee as per routine as already directed by the High Court,” said the spokesperson.
The Association said that at a time when schools are doing all out efforts to help students with community schooling, offline assignments, online classes and other initiatives, the reciprocal cooperation from parents has not been encouraging. “Our motto has been that there needs to be balance between helping deserving families and sustaining the income of 65000 families of employees associated with private schools. If schools have zero income then entire society will suffer and education sector will collapse,” said the spokesperson.