Haryana Education Board pressurizing private schools affiliated to other boards of state to take Class VIII annual examination Kulbhushan Sharma

Chandigarh, February 19, 2022: National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) National President Dr. Kulbhushan Sharma said that Haryana Education Board is pressurizing private schools affiliated to other boards of the state to take Class VIII annual examination, which is totally wrong. Private schools in the state are protesting against the one-sided decision of SCERT to give recognition to the board for taking the Class VIII examination. Because the educational institution to whom the government has entrusted the responsibility for the examination of primary classes (SCERT), how can it be so weak that it cannot conduct the examination at its level? Second, if SCERT had to take this decision, it should have been decided for the examination by forming a committee of all the other prestigious boards like CBSE, ICSE, IB, Haryana Board, and then that committee should have been deciding in the meeting that which board to conduct the eighth examination. But the government did not consider it appropriate to do so and by taking a unilateral decision, gave this right to the Haryana Board.

Addressing a press conference here today, Dr. Kulbhushan Sharma demanded that the government should first constitute the SSSA. The SSSA should decide who will conduct the assessment and how. It is beyond the understanding of all the school operators and parents including the children that on the one hand, the government has given CBSE recognition to 136 government schools by not trusting its board. At the same time, now the present government wants to get the class VIII examination of the children studying in CBSE schools from the board. This decision of the government is a violation of the right to education of children studying in private schools. This step of the government is going to bring down the quality of education to the children. The government is playing with the future and quality of education of the children just to earn money. The eyes of the government and the board are engaged in collecting revenue of about 40 crores by conducting the eighth examination in private schools. This decision is also being taken at a time when private schools and children are going through the third wave of Corona and children are not fully prepared to take the examination. Therefore, they demand that the government, leaving this dual character, should immediately withdraw this decision, otherwise the private school operators will run a big movement with the parents, whose entire responsibility will be with the government.
 
The purpose of the government is to close the temporary recognized schools and enroll the children in their schools.
 
Dr. Kulbhushan Sharma said that the BJP government had promised in its election manifesto that when their government will come, all private schools would be recognized by reducing the land conditions.
 
Along with this, temporary recognized schools will be given permanent recognition.

But the Education Department has issued a notice and ordered the closure of thousands of temporary recognized schools from the next session, which is completely wrong. The intention of the department behind this is to close these schools and put thousands of children studying in them in their schools. Because children do not want to go to government schools, the education department is ready to close these schools by adopting such tactics. But NISA will not allow any school to be closed. For this, if we had to agitate on the streets, then NISA would not back down. He urged the government to fulfill its promise and give recognition to all such schools so that the future of the children can be saved.
 
NISA National President Dr. Kulbhushan Sharma informed that from the year 2014-2015, private schools are giving admission to poor and meritorious children under 134A.

Under 134A, admission is given from class II to class XII. About 75 thousand children are studying under 134A in various private schools of the state.
 
He said that for the children of class II to VIII, the government pays a monthly fee of Rs 300 to 500 in rural areas and Rs 500 to 700 in urban areas. At the same time, for the children studying in class 9th to 12th, the government has not fixed any monthly fee to date, while private schools have repeatedly urged the government. In 9 years from the year 2014-15 to the year 2021-22, the government gave money to some schools. But not a single penny was given to any school from the year 2015-16 to 2019-20. According to an estimate, this amount comes to 1500 crores, which is due to the government. For the last two years, schools are facing an economic slowdown due to Corona and in such a situation the government is forcing private schools to enroll students under 134A. Regarding which NISA has written a letter to the Central Government that their outstanding amount should be returned to the schools immediately in their account with 12 percent annual interest. Apart from this, the children who are studying from 9th to 12th without fees, it should also be paid of the last year as per rules.