Students ‘harassed’ over SLCs by private schools

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, July 5

Students who want to change their school are being harassed by the owners/managements of different private schools for the issuance of school-leaving certificates (SLCs).

The underprivileged students who are studying at private schools and want to switch over to government schools owing to financial constraints are the worst sufferers.

“My son has been studying at a private school. My income was badly affected during the Covid-lockdown and I will not be able to afford the school fees. So, I decided to get him admitted to a government school. But the owner of the private school is dilly-dallying in issuing the SLC,” laments a migrant worker, requesting anonymity.

Many such poor parents are being denied SLCs for their wards and harassed by the owners of private schools in the name of various dues and charges.“A number of students who come from humble backgrounds are facing problems in the issuance of SLCs. The hapless students and their parents have been making rounds of the schools, but to no avail,” says Naresh, who runs an informal evening school for the underprivileged children at Rohtak.

He demands that the government should end the essentiality of SLCs for admission to state-run schools so that the underprivileged children may get the benefit of the Right to Education Act.

Rohtak District Education Officer (DEO) Vijay Laxmi concedes that they have been receiving complaints from parents of schoolchildren.

“In some cases, the school-owners do not want their students to shift to other schools as it would cause financial losses. In other cases, the parents want to get their children shifted to other schools without clearing their dues,” she states, adding that such matters are resolved through the block-level officials concerned in coordination with the parents and school managements.