Private schools floating norms, run schools during summer holidays DSE says its helpless in absence of any written complaint

Private schools floating norms, run schools during summer holidays
DSE says its helpless in absence of any written complaint
Nitesh Sangral
JAMMU, June 15: Flouting the orders and norms of the state government as well as education department, many private schools in Jammu are open here despite summer vacations and are forcing the students to attend classes in humid conditions. All the private and government educational institutions have been shut from June 12 but till now number of private schools are still functioning but the concerned authorities are not taking any step against these schools. Last year, most of the private institutions had not followed the rules and conducted classes despite clear directions that no class work will be conducted during the summer vacations. The private schools did not close down according to the announced date which made it very difficult for the Education department to monitor the schools organizing summer classes for the students. It pertinent to mentioned here that one of the institution, namely Shiksha Niketen School, Jeevan Nagar is still functioning even after announcement of summer vacation. Even the prestigious Model Academy at B.C Road is also holding classing by asking the students to come without uniform. One of the student said that, the school authorities have not declared any holiday. “we come in morning at 9 am and attended daily classes, after that during afternoon we go to home. Authorities have stopped the plying of school bus due to which we have to suffer”, student said. Interestingly, we asked to comment on the issue, Director School Education, Gulzar Qureshi said that he is helpless on the matter. “If the parents register a complaint against these schools, action will be taken. Otherwise, we cannot do any things to force closure of these institutions. So far we have not received any complaint”, Qureshi said. Source said that there are about 25,000 governments as well as private schools in Jammu region and many of the private institutions do not follow the directions of DSE. Many students said that the schools have become the money chargers. “Majority of private schools are holding their usual classes and one of the private higher secondary school even hold classes during entire summer vacation for 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th classes. It has become a routine for some private schools to hold classes on holidays. This puts a lot of pressure on children”, alleged local residents. “It seems the managements of private schools have a parallel directorate, which decides their academic calendar. Despite strict warnings from the government, they keep their premises open,” they added. Parents of students of private institutes has alleged that despite charging hefty amount of money on the name of tuition and other annual charges no facility is being given to students in school. Even safety norms set by authorities are been flouted openly. Parents of students demanded that such schools violating norms should be derecognized.