Days after announcing fee waiver scheme for the deserving students, Private Schools Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) on Tuesday said it has closed down the initiative, alleging parents of all students had stopped to deposit the fee.
The Association said it had offered to help society in the shape of fee waiver scheme for people hit by the lockdown, but some people were misusing the offer and not clearing the fee.
“There was no government order regarding any kind of fee waiver. In fact we were allowed to collect fee. In a good faith to help the society we decided to offer some kind of reprieve to people. But the irony is that few lobbies have hijacked the entire scheme,” said a spokesman of PSAJK. “Some vested interests and greedy people have completely twisted the facts. They are telling people that 100% fee has been waived to all students,” the spokesperson said.
The Association said people who were economically well-off were infringing on the rights of deserving families. “The situation is such that the government employees and other class of people who have sufficient income are blatantly refusing to pay the fee. In some cases poor parents paid fee without complaint and people from rich background refused to pay any fee,” said the spokesman.
The Association termed the situation alarming. “In some cases our schools have been attacked by aggressive parents who refuse to pay the fee,” said the spokesperson.
The Association said on one hand people were ready to pay one-year fee to missionary schools, but on the other hand they refuse to pay fee to local schools which run on limited budget.
The Association today decided to halt the entire fee waiver scheme in the “larger interests” of saving fragile private education sector.
“The executive council meeting was attended by all members who decided unanimously to halt the scheme. Parents have been asked to deposit the fee as per routine as already directed by the High Court,” said the spokesperson.