Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Managements of recognised school on the warpath

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Recognised School Managements’ Association will organise a dharna in front of the Secretariat on February 26 against what it termed the government move to choke the functioning of unaided, recognised schools in the State.

The provision in the Kerala Education Act and Rules revision committee report calling for government pay-scales for teachers in unaided recognised schools sounds good on paper. In practical terms this would mean a massive hike in the fee in such schools, Association president V. K. Jayakumar told a press conference here on Saturday. Not all unaided schools are affluent schools operating in big cities. There are many such schools in remote areas where the students come from marginally well off families. If the fee in those schools is hiked, these students would leave for other schools. This, it appears, is what the government also wants.

The dharna would demand that the government desist from allowing local bodies to have a say in the running of unaided schools that do not get any grant from the government and that the government back off from levying huge taxes on such schools by including them in the list of commercial institutions. The suggestion in the revision committee report that the student strength of classes be limited to 25 would, if implemented, mean an additional financial burden amounting to lakhs of rupees a year on unaided schools. This, coupled with an increase in the salaries of teacher, would leave many schools with no option but to close down.

The association would also demand that the introduction of the ESI scheme in unaided schools alone be revoked, that the government reimburse the examinations expenses of unaided recognised schools and that private study be reinstated in these schools, Mr. Jayakumar added.

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