Give admission details of poor students: SHRC to pvt schools

Rifat Mohidin

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 16

State Human Rights Commission chairman Justice Bilal Nazki (retd) has issued notice to leading private schools of Kashmir directing them to provide admission details of students belonging to financially weaker backgrounds.

In the notice, the schools have been asked to file the detailed compliance report before the commission within two weeks as to what procedure they are following during the admission process.

The SHRC direction comes in response to the petition filed by the chairman of the International Forum for Justice, Ahsan Untoo.

The petitioner has also urged the commission to ask the heads of all leading private schools of Kashmir to divulge whether they have installed heating devices for the students in their respective institutions. The notice has been sent to all elite schools in the Valley.

The petitioner has urged the commission to seek the details of the admission procedure followed by these schools and whether the poor and downtrodden are being admitted as per the Supreme Court guidelines.

The petitioner said there were allegations that these schools were fleecing the parents on the pretext of purchasing heating equipment, but it had come to the fore that many of these institutions lack such facilities for the students.

The petitioner has also urged the commission to go for the on-spot inspection of the admission procedure followed by these elite schools and the role of brokers who mint money from parents to get the admission of their wards done.

The parents have welcomed the step taken by the SHRC. Earlier, the parents had also filed complaints against private schools for fleecing and forcing them to buy books and uniforms from these institutions. The parents alleged that they were being charged exorbitant rates.