No fee concession for private schools, no syllabus curtailment: Govt

Srinagar, Oct 19:  Climbing down from its earlier stand, Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday said there will be no fee concession for private school students, although their transportation charges will be waived off.

Divisional Kashmir, Baseer Khan Saturday told The Kashmir Monitor that all private school students shall have to pay two months tuition fee. However, no school can demand transportation fee, he said.

“Strict action will be taken against schools which will charge transportation fee from the students,” he said.

On October 17, Khan had directed all deputy commissioners to ensure that no student shall be charged tuition and transportation fee.  He had even warned schools against any violation of the directive.

President Private School Association, GN Var said that there are around 6500 employees working in private schools of the valley. “If private schools will waive off two month fee than they will not be able to pay salaries to their employees,” he said.

Schools across the valley have remained closed since August 5, when central government revoked the special status of the state and divided the state into two union territories. In the last week of August, government announced reopening of primary schools followed by high and higher secondary institutions. However, students preferred to stay away from the schools amid unprecedented situation.

Meanwhile, Education Department has decided against curtailing syllabus.  “We have distributed study material among the students, which means we have covered entire syllabus. Examinations will be conducted of entire syllabus and there will be no concession,” said a top source.