JKBOSE begins inspection of city schools for affiliation

Tribune News Service

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Jammu, September 6

After being criticised for allegedly giving affiliation to private educational institutes which lacked safety certificates, the J&K Board of School Education (JKBOSE) has begun inspection of schools to ensure fulfillment of all mandatory conditions before giving them affiliation.

There are around 3,000 private schools in the Jammu division. These include more than 1,000 primary schools, 868 middle schools, 556 high schools and 262 higher secondary schools.

Sources said a majority of the schools, which were earlier given affiliation, did not fulfill the conditions regarding the issuance of various safety certificates.

They said the rapid pace at which the affiliation was given by the school education board without checking the fulfillment of required norms came under severe criticism.

Former BOSE Chairman Prof Zahoor Ahmad Chatt then convened a meeting of the State Affiliation Committee in 2016 wherein a criteria was fixed for affiliation, upgrade and renewal of affiliation of private educational institutes of Jammu and Kashmir divisions.

“Now a time limit has been fixed for validity of affiliation of schools. After the expiry of that period, a fresh inspection will be conducted by BOSE to extend the period of affiliation,” said a BOSE official.

“In fact, before granting or extending affiliation to any school, BOSE officials will visit the institute to ensure whether all necessary formalities, including safety norms, have been fulfilled by the school or not. The board is not taking any chances and keeping a strict vigil on the functioning of schools,” the official said.

“The inspection of all educational institutes affiliated with JKBOSE are being carried out on an annual basis. Last year, there were 39 cases of educational institutes having major construction/infrastructural deficiencies in the Jammu division. It was also decided that those private schools which had applied for upgradation will not be allowed to run the classes,” the official added.