A meeting of Private Schools of winter zone of District Reasi was organized by Ashwani Khajuria (District President) along with the designated members of Private schools of District Reasi to discuss their problems.
Members’ from different winter zones viz Chasana, Arnas, Pouni, Mahore etc. had come and highlighted their problems which included financial deficit due to the non collection of monthly fee, delay in disbursing the regular monthly salary to their 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 their low budget.
The teachers which were engaged to continue the 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 the delay in their salaries.
They said that some schools might have paid the wages to their employees out of their reserve and collection of fee after the announcement of unlock but most of the 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. General Secretary of the J & K Private Schools Association Ajay Gupta, who was a special invitee, 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 the 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 generate a strategy of reopening the schools in Jammu and Kashmir on the rotational basis as done in case of coaching centers / tutorials for the larger interest of the community.
The prominent 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 , Javeid Ahmed, Madam Sharma etc.