NISA President Kulbhushan Sharma’s strong attack on government for anti-private school policies of Haryana Government

Chandigarh: Reeling under the onslaught of Corona for more than 15 months, private schools of Haryana were hoping that government will come to their rescue and some sort of relief package will be announced for them but all such hopes have come crashing down. These were the words uttered by NISA President and Federation of Private Schools Welfare Association State President Kulbhushan Sharma at a Press Conference held at Chandigarh Press Club. Haryana Government and its education department is rather heaping miseries on already beleaguered private schools. It seems that private schools are committing some kind of a crime by educating children. Kulbhushan Sharma further added with a tone of bitterness and exasperation. He further said that law has a clear provision that no student can take admission in a new school without obtaining the school leaving certificate from the school where he or she was previously studying. But this government is violating this provision with impunity and government schools are admitting students irrespective of whether they have obtained SLC or not.

State Vice President Dr. Amit Mehta, State General Secretary Baldev Saini, Dr. Varun Jain, Pankaj Sidhana, Dharampal Saini, Vikas Dhiman and Chand Jaffran were also present on this occasion.

Kulbhushan Sharma said that government has the duty to protect the rights of every citizen or group of citizens but here the very government is trampling upon the rights of common people and now these very people are losing faith in the government.
Kulbhushan Sharma further said that NISA has already gone to High Court on this matter but government officials have no fear of court even. They are just using the might and unbridled power of the government machinery to increase enrolment at government schools. NISA and Federation has sent a notice to the director of elementary education department and all district education officers for this grave violation and demanded a strong action against principals who are indulging in such blatant illegality.

Kulbhushan Sharma also said that pending dues of 134 A to is pending for months now. He provided elaborate figures and data about these pending amounts. According to figures provided by him, 14 schools of Ambala, 13 of Kaithal, 19 of Sirsa, 11 of Rohtak 8 of Faridabad, 14 of Kurukshetra, 8 of Hisar, 6 of Jind, 7 of Mewat, 8 of Palwal 3 of Sonipat, 3 each of Bhiwani and Fatehabad and one each from Panipat, Yamunanagar and Karnal have not received their dues under 134 A so far. He also provided figures of pending amounts on an yearly basis. These are as under:

2014-15.    Rs 2744209
2015-16     Rs 4212390
2016-17.    Rs 5358150
2017-18.    Rs 8491198
2018-19.    Rs 12865302
2019-20     Rs 17275625

He demanded that these amounts should be paid immediately by the government.

General Secretary of the association Baldev Saini and Varun Jain demanded that schools should now be opened with immediate effect with elaborate COVID protocol and SoPs in place. They said that Telangana and Uttar Pradesh had already done this and Haryana government should also follow the same pattern. Office bearers of the two bodies also revealed a survey of parents. More than 7000 parents had participated in this survey and overwhelming number is in favour of opening the schools. Following are the figures.

1 Are you happy with government decision of closing down school
Yes 1170
No 6095
1. Do you think kids are having learning loss?yes 6717
No 573
3 Do you want physical classes also alongwith online classes?
Yes. 6092
No 1125
4. Do you want online classes to be continued?
. Yes 1840
. No   5324
5 Do you want schools to be opened?
Yes 6411
No  751
6 Do you think that online education has impacted the physical well-being of your ward
Yes 6039
No. 1101
7 Do you think that online education he has impacted your child on psychological parameters.
Yes 5560
No. 1540