“Such measures may compensate their losses to a great extend. But, the UT administration should ensure the implementation of reservation quota for economically weaker and disadvantaged groups of the society in private schools as per the guidelines envisioned in the RTE-Act.

Almost all the private schools while publishing admission notices or posters highlighting the facilities that they are supposed to provide to their students after the confirmation of their admission to that particular school. And most of the time, it is the school transport facility that remains one of the prime priorities of parents in the selection of the school for their kids. The reasons may be varied whether it is the busy working schedule of parents or the location of the school, school timing, etc. But, one of the common concerns is the safety of their kids that compel the parents to avail school transport facility as it not only saves time but also ensures the safety of the students. There is an agreement between school administration and parents at the time of admission. Now denying this facility at this juncture is nothing but a gross violation.
On one hand, when the school education department is preparing the ground to open school on the 1st of March 2021 after the long break, the sudden announcement by the Private School Association that they will not provide school transport facility to their students put parents and students in chaos and confusion. Though, the Divisional administration showed a frequent response and called a joint meeting of all the stakeholders and ensure that the school transport issue will be resolved in a manner that will suit both parties. In the meantime, he issued the necessary directions to the school authorities to provide a transport facility in favor of the students as usual.
It is earlier to say what will come out from these future meetings in this regard but the society is hopeful that no extra-burden will be put on parents as they have been already suffering psychological and economically due to the long lockdown situations that emerged due to the Post abrogation of article 370 and COVID-19. It is pertinent to mention here that despite this bad financial condition, almost all the parents paid school tuition fees keeping in mind that the employees working in these institutions are part of our society, their monthly income depends on the tuition fee.
Regarding the concern expressed by the school authorities that they are facing a financial crunch due to the nonpayment of transport fee. Let me clear here that it is not the situation that is created by parents or any individual or group. They are not the only sufferers of this odd situation. Every sector is directly or indirectly impacted by this situation that was beyond human control. Even the beggar community could not keep themselves at bay with this odd situation. So, it is not rationally nor morally sound approach to put all the burden on parents, harass them on one pretext or the other. Rather, it is good to plead the case before the government to get some kind of relief from there. Like:

Special exemption to Annual road Tax

The private school Association can place a proposal before the UT Administration to offer a one-time waiver of road tax for school buses.

Exemption of Interest Rates

Some schools availed the loans from the different banks to acquire vehicles for their respective schools. The UT Administration can motivate the bank authorities to give special concession or complete exemption of interest in favor of the schools or time relaxation in return installments.
“Such measures may compensate their loss to a great extend. But, the UT administration should ensure the implementation of reservation quota for economically weaker and disadvantaged groups of the society in private schools as per the guidelines envisioned in RTE-Act. After all, education is a social sector, turning these sacred institutions just as business units are not justifiable.

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