Srinagar, Dec 26: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday brought private schools and representatives of the Parents Association together to streamline the functioning of the private educational institutions across Jammu and Kashmir.
The move comes to ease out the operation of these private schools while addressing the parental concerns with regard to the persisting issue of overpriced textbooks in these schools.
In this regard, a meeting was chaired by the minister for education, Sakina Itoo at the Civil Secretariat Jammu, which was attended by the Secretary School Education Department (SED) Ram Niwas Sharma besides the Chairman JKBOSE, Project Director Samagra Shiksha, Director School Education Jammu (DSEJ), Secretary JKBOSE, Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK), Administrative Officer Fee Fixation and Regulation Committee and representatives of Private Schools Association (from Jammu and Kashmir).
Representative of the parents’ association of Private schools was also present in the meeting.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Education Minister Sakina Itoo said that both representatives of Private Schools Associations and the representative of parents’ association of private schools properly raised their issues in the meeting.
She said the government will constitute a committee to review the issues with regard to the textbooks, transport and uniforms while a separate committee will be constituted to review the syllabus issues as raised by the private schools association in the meeting.
“A separate committee will be constituted to look into the issues faced by the private schools about getting NoCs from different departments,” the education minister said.
She acknowledged that the private schools in Jammu and Kashmir were facing issues in obtaining NoCs from different departments.
“We understand that the process is time-consuming and cumbersome. It takes them almost six months to get the NoCs, which have a validity of only one year. This is an injustice with them; we will look into it,” she said.
She said the representatives of PSAJK demanded one- time recognition of schools, which will not be accepted by the government.
“If the schools are given one-time recognition, then there will be no control over these schools. But we will review the issue and will consider extending the validity period,” she said.
During the meeting, PSAJK has pitched for leniency in the curriculum of private schools, to which the government has said the matter will be reviewed by the committee.
“We will check their syllabus, and if the content is relevant and important, we will incorporate it in JKBOSE textbooks,” Sakina Itoo said.
President Private Schools Association J&K (PSAJK) Nazrul Islam Baba said they raised their issues before the government, and all these grievances will be addressed in a time-bound manner.
“Our major issue pertains to NoCs which is completely injustice to us. We raised it with the government and were assured of some relief,” he said.
About the textbooks, he said the private schools will cooperate with the government in putting a cap on the price of the textbooks. “But the government must understand and allow private schools to teach textbooks of private publishers. Let there be a proper check on price with no compromise on the quality,” he said.
He said the PSAJK will always work in collaboration with the government and extend all the support in running the private education sector smoothly.
“Our only demand is that the functioning of the private schools must be eased out,” he said.