Private schools slam govt rules, say won’t admit EWS students

SAY REIMBURSEMENT OF FEES OF STUDENTS IN CHANDIGARH AND HARYANA NOT MADE FOR YEARS; TO PROTEST IN NEW DELHI ON APRIL 7

CHANDIGARH: Angry over the alleged non-reimbursement of fees of students belonging to economically weak section (EWS) for years, private schools of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on Saturday warned that they will not admit these students in the upcoming session beginning next week.

Briefing mediapersons here, National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) president Kulbhushan Sharma said the private schools from across country will also hold a protest at Ramlila ground in New Delhi on April 7 against government rules because of which they have been harassed for long.

Sharma, who was accompanied by office-holders of several schools from the region, alleged that it was because of the government rules that an atmosphere of fear was being created for private schools.

He was flanked by Independent Schools Association, Chandigarh, president HS Mamik, Anil Chopra, Budhraj Gupta (Punjab) and Satyavaan Kundu (Haryana).

They said fee reimbursement was not being made for providing free education to EWS children under the Right to Education (RTE) for the past three years in Haryana which has made it mandatory under Section 134-A of School Education Rules, and six years in Chandigarh.

The Punjab government had different norms according to which EWS students were first absorbed in government schools and hence no student was sent to private schools. About 6,000 private schools in Haryana, 4,000 in Punjab and about 100 in Chandigarh that are protesting against various government rules, they claimed.

They said they were also shocked over rules as per which the school managements and principals are made accused in cases of road accidents involving school buses. Likewise, teachers are afraid of teaching children as they do not know when they could be made responsible in case of a police complaint by students’ guardians.