City activist alleges edn dept nexus with pvt schools

Ludhiana: Organising an education department event in a private school has come under the scanner of the education minister. The department — which spends lakhs of rupees in improving government schools —however, often conducts its meetings in private schools. This anomaly was pointed out by various journalists in some press conferences. Going another step ahead, city activist Ajay Sharma has now written to the chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court in Chandigarh, bringing this fact to their notice.
In his letter, Sharma has written, “This is a matter of disgrace that even after spending huge amounts on revamping government schools to turn them into smart schools, the education department cannot spend money in organising functions in a local government school. Recently, a two-day event of training in e-content was organised at Guru Nanak Public School, Sarabha Nagar, last week.”
He also stated, “Besides this, the arrangements of crockery for tea, snacks, and lunch were arranged by the school, which will financially burden students of the private school. I literally feel that such obligations to private schools have given them the freedom to form a nexus with private publishing houses for the sale of textbooks, and go in for frequent fee hikes, as the education department is hand-in-glove with private schools.”
Sharma further states, “I am amazed that the discussion on bringing about reform in government schools is conducted in a private school.” Raising questions about capacity and allocation of funds, Sharma wonders why the funds allotted to government schools are not sufficient to construct even one seminar hall.
“It is pertinent to mention here that Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS) in PAU, Jawahar Nagar, Multipurpose have seminar halls with a capacity of more than 500-600 people, and a seminar could have been conducted there, but its nexus with private schools was clearly established when the education department chose a private school over its own schools,” added Sharma, who has also marked a complaint to the chief minister and education minister. Sharma said, “I want the authorities to intervene and look into the matter.”
District education officer (Secondary) Swaranjit Kaur said, “We chose Guru Nanak Public School, Sarabha Nagar (a private school) as the hall had accommodated a strength of more than 800 teachers. However, all the arrangements were done by the department itself. The city does not have an auditorium in any government school, and few government schools have halls with a capacity of not more than 300 people. So, it was difficult to accommodate so many people.”
Sanjeev Thapar, principal of GSSS in PAU, said, “Even the auditorium of a private school is for the education community. But if any government school auditorium is well developed, then we need not look for options in private schools. Rather, we can then compete with private schools on an equal footing. This will also boost the confidence of government school students, as many of them suffer from stage fear.”