Srinagar: Private Schools Association of Jammu and Kashmir (PSAJK) Tuesday called on the government to take the suggestion of Private Schools before issuing new guidelines for the Fee Fixation Committee (FFC).
The Association said that as is being reported new guidelines are being issued for FFC but strangely nobody has approached the Private Schools in this regard. “It seems nobody is bothered to get the opinion of the most important stakeholders of the entire process. They need to hear the viewpoint of Private Schools so as to make a balanced decision and issue guidelines that don’t disregard rights of anybody,” said PSAJK spokesperson in a statement issued to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
In a democracy the opinion of all stakeholders is taken and we wish that same principle is followed here too, he said, adding that the Private Schools are faced with survival issues and government needs to listen to them.
“Currently any increase in the fee wherein monthly fee is upto Rs 1500 and annual charges upto Rs 6000 is decided by the Chairman FFC itself. There is no need of FFC meeting. This resulted in expedited work and it also kept overall pendency of files at minimum,” the spokesperson said.
The Association said involving FFC in Fee matters of every school will increase the pendency of work as the FFC meeting happens non-frequently due to busy schedule of its members.
“To make the process more efficient we want the powers of Chairman to be strengthened. The Chairman should decide fee hike wherein monthly charges are upto Rs 2000 and yearly charges Rs 15000 as per the facilities provided by the respective school and market inflation,” the spokesperson said.
The Association said that like every other sector Private Schools have been hit hard by the market inflation as expenses have gone through the roofs. “The government needs to keep that in mind too before issuing new guidelines. The most important thing is that private schools should be invited to give their feedback and suggestion so that any conflict of opinion that may emerge later on is avoided,” spokesperson said—(KNO)
