Though general public belief about education in Kashmir is that private schools offer better education to their wards but the exploitation of children in the name of tuition fee, bus fee and other annual charges is fastly changing public opinion about the future of children in private schools. Not once but several times in last two years most of the private schools in violation of the directions of the J&K Government’s Fee Fixation and Regulation Committee (FFRC) have made abortive attempts to hike tuition fee and also charge bus fee for the pandemic periods but again and again they were pulled up by the FFRC for violating it’s directions on both the tuition and as well as the bus fee. While most of the private schools are run by charitable trusts and people of affluent classes, their repeated attempts to hike tuition fee and charge bus fee for the pandemic periods shows their increasing greed for money which eventually prompts them to fleece the gullible parents of the children enrolled in their schools and that too amid increasing economic distress witnessed for the last two years across the country. Though enrolment in government schools has not shown any marked improvement in government schools for over a decade now but the growing tendency of private schools to exploit parents of their enrolled children in the name of tuition and bus fee would sooner or later reduce the growing tendency of admissions in private schools and intensify the process of fresh enrollments in Government schools. Quality teaching is good for the future of education in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country but exploitation of the parents in the name of tuition and bus fee is not a good omen for the future of private schools in Jammu & Kashmir or any other part of the country. Never forget that exploitation of the parents by private schools amid increasing economic distress triggered by back to back two covid lockdowns in last two years could trigger an unprecedented decline in the enrollment trends in private schools across Jammu & Kashmir.
By all standards of understandabilities exploitation of parents may force them to shift their wards from private schools to government schools due increasing economic distress in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country. Such a tendency may not be good for access of children to quality education but finally education of children like other basic daily human needs of the people is also dictated by family’s economic and social position. So it is for the private schools to own a policy of self accountability for the purposes of fulfilling a great social responsibility instead of changing it’s decision on tuition and buss fee time and again only at the intervention of the government owned statutory body like FFRC.
Recently most of the private schools started demanding bus fee from the parents amid increasing intensity in the covid-19 pandemic spread across Jammu & Kashmir and amid huge public uproar the J&K Government’s Fee Fixation and Regulation Committee had to intervene for the purposes of implementing it’s orders on bar over charging of bus fee amid increasing intensity of the covid pandemic. So by all standards of understandabilities exploitation of parents may force them to shift their wards from private schools to government schools due increasing economic distress in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country. Such a tendency may not be good for access of children to quality education but finally education of children like other basic daily human needs of the people is also dictated by family’s economic and social position. So it is for the private schools to own a policy of self accountability for the purposes of fulfilling a great social responsibility instead of changing it’s decision on tuition and buss fee time and again only at the intervention of the government owned statutory body like FFRC.
