National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA), a body of private schools in the country, has requested the Prime Minister to treat education as an essential service and has sought an allowance of Rs 4,000 per month for teaching and non-teaching employees of private schools.
Kulbhushan Sharma, president of NISA, said, “Due to economic slowdown, loss of jobs and uncertainty, parents have stopped giving school fee. The repercussion is the collapse of the entire ecosystem. Schools are becoming financially unsustainable and are closing down. There are reports of teachers
taking up menial jobs for survival. The situation is causing deep damage to the strong trust-based relationship of school, teacher, parents and students, which once broken, will do irreparable damage to society.”
The alliance has requested the Prime Minister that education should be treated as an essential service as it is the basic right and need of every child and has asked for immediate financial allowance of Rs 4,000 per month to teaching and non-teaching employees.
Kulbhushan said, “Not only the teaching and non-teaching staff, but lakhs of people who are involved in the businesses of transportation, stationary, schools dress and book selling are also feeling the heat. We understand that the government wants to protect children but at the same time, it should understand that this is going to be the second consecutive year when schools are closed and it will have a very bad impact on the future of the children.”
The alliance, in its memorandum to the PM, claimed that the country has approximately 30 crore children in the school-going age group of 6 to 14 years. More than 70 per cent of private schools are low-cost private schools charging average monthly fee below Rs 1,000 per month.
“There are about two crore direct and five crore supportive stakeholders associated with the education system. The government should formulate a policy and save education as well as the people associated with the system,” said the NISA president.
Source: Tribune India
