Equality in education

The private schools in Jammu and Kashmir have always remained under severe criticism with many people, especially the parents claiming about the arbitrary hike of the fee structures from time to time. The issues come to the fore at a time when the government has been making claims about taking stern action against the schools found involved in the act. However, seemingly no action has been initiated against any of the private schools for raising the fee structure and seeking the annual charges and other related fees from the students. Amidst these disturbing reports, it has been learnt that many of the schools earlier affiliated with JK Board of School Education (BOSE) have switched their affiliation while many others are in process of switching their affiliation to other national and international boards. The move under which the schools are switching their affiliations to different international boards particularly Cambridge, has created apprehensions among the parents about the regulation of these institutions post shifting of the affiliations. The management of a private school in Srinagar, previously affiliated with the JKBOSE, has issued a communication to the parents that the school will include Cambridge curriculum from 2025-2026 academic session. The school has informed the parents that the fee structure will remain unchanged while they have sent class wise rates of textbooks to the parents. As per the rate list, one set of textbooks for class 1st primary to class 5th costs Rs 4300. These issues like charging the students a hefty sum for books and other stuff needs to be looked into so that the parents are not pushed to the wall. It is high time for the government to stop such practices so that every section of the society will get education without any discrimination or hindrances.