8 aided schools closed in dist

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 21

Three secondary aided schools and five primary aided schools in the district have been closed down due to the constant apathy being meted out to them by the authorities concerned. While there were once 64 aided schools in the district, now only 50 secondary and 11 primary aided schools have been left operational in the district.

While the government schools in the state – seem to be on a path of revival sooner or later – with the coming of Education Secretary Krishan Kumar, the aided schools, meanwhile, continue to languish due to continuous indiferrence as many have closed down and many others witness a severe decline in the number of students as well as staff.

The aided schools which have closed down in the district include KSSD High School, Alawalpur, GM High School Basti Adda and Bharti Baal Vidya Mandir Arjun Nagar.

Big aided schools in the district like Sain Dass Senior Secondary School, which at one point of time had as many as 3,000 students, is now left with merely 1,000 students.

Principal of Sain Dass School, Roshan Lal, said, “Things have considerably changed at the aided schools. The lack of maintenance grants obviously has a bearing on schools. Since 2003, we have not been able to keep a single new teacher, because there is no provision for them. Earlier, we had 147 teachers, every year, more teachers retire. Now only 47 are left and they teach 1,000 students.”

Notably, after the implementation of the RTE Act in schools, they are barred from charging fees from students of first to eighth. While government schools get school upkeep grants from the government, the aided schools have to fund the studies for students from their own funds.

The salaries of the schools are also often received late. Sources said the salary received last was in March and that of the remaining months has not been promised so far. However, staff said it was expected within a couple of days.

With a ban imposed on the recruitment of teachers in the aided schools since 2003, for the past 14 years, no new teachers have been recruited in these schools. At Sain Das School, for example, as many as 147 teachers used to teach earlier, but now merely 47 are left.

In Jalandhar, presently, as many as 470 employees from class IV to teaching level are presently working in aided schools.

Since as per the grant-in-aid scheme run for aided institutions, a ratio of95:5 per cent of the government, school distribution of salary grants of the schools are done, the schools are presently receiving salary grants from the government (those too with considerable delays), these schools are not getting any infrastructural grants and are being funded thought the salary received at schools.

Employees of the union have tried meeting government functionaries various times, as both their demands regarding allowances at par with the government staff and timely disbursal of grants, remain unfulfilled. 

Their prime demands include the merger of aided schools and staff with government schools and benefits on a par with government institutions.          

Press secretary of the union, Manish Aggarwal, said, “Various schools have closed down and the strength of many other schools is greatly reduced due to the non-appointment of teachers. We had met the CM’s secretary on June 27 regarding the issue and also plan to meet the Education Secretary soon so that a solution is sought for the crisis that aided schools presently find themselves in.”