Private schools ask Haryana to roll back leaving certificate exemption

Chandigarh: Within days of Haryana education department allowing students of private schools to shift to government schools without a school-leaving certificate (SLC), the Haryana chapter of Federation of Private Schools and National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) on Wednesday threatened to not cooperate with the government schools and sought withdrawal of the order.
Over 25 lakh children study in 20,000 private schools across the state, and as of Wednesday, around one lakh of them have sought SLC to move to government schools, said officials.
NISA national president Kulbhushan Sharma said the schools would also have to initiate recovery proceedings against parents of students who seek admission in government schools. “We are educationists and most of us have a budget and small schools. Over 40% such students who have not cleared the fee for last session. As far as current session is concerned, due to government orders in the wake of Covid, not more than 10% have made the payment so far. We have reached this conclusion after conducting survey on 300 schools,’’ said Sharma.
NISA described the state government’s SLC order as a reflection of its “dictatorial attitude”. “This looks like a conspiracy against us. First, they bound us to not force parents to pay and now they are giving admission to our students. Government is bent upon locking our schools,” added Sharma.
He said if government failed to withdraw the order, they would start non-cooperation in terms of sharing information of school records. “So far as civil recoveries are concerned, we will first move against government servants who have intentionally not paid fee and now seeking SLCs without clearing dues,’’ said Sharma.
Meanwhile, the education department has also claimed that once the admission process is complete, it will prepare a detailed block and district-wise list of the total number of students that have switched from private schools to government schools.
According to sources, government schools have seen major dropouts due to the exodus of workers and labourers. Moreover, with less than 30% of the workers in Gurgaon willing to stay put, the enrolment status of the new session doesn’t look encouraging either. “In such a situation, it is in favour for the government schools to adopt such measures where norms on SLCs have been significantly relaxed. Had these over one lakh parents been stuck due to SLCs, enrolment status in government schools would have come down considerably,” said a government school teacher.
Parents have argued that with mode of education likely to be online for most this academic session, it’s futile to keep fighting with private schools over charges other than tuition fees that are being currently demanded despite government orders. Moreover, they asserted that if the government uses this moment to upgrade government school infrastructure, hire more qualified teachers, and declare at least 40%-50% of the schools under CBSE board, lakhs of parents will move away from private schools.“The bubble of privatisation in education has burst during this pandemic. The way they have harassed parents over fee payment issues has forced parents to opt for government aided schools,” said Kailash Sharma, general secretary, Haryana Abhibhavak Ekta Manch, a parents' body.
(With inputs from
Siddharth Tiwari )