Budget private schools seek relaxation in rules

A national alliance of private low-cost schools has sought the Central government to keep them in a distinct category of schools and also to relax rules to run classes. “We are catering to the educational needs of children belonging to the economically weaker sections of society across the country at a very low tuition fee. The government must keep us in a distinct category of schools. We have submitted our demands to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry,” Kulbhushan Sharma, president of the National Independent Schools Alliance, said.

“Our budget private schools constitute a large part of education system of India. But the government has always been favouring government and elite schools. The policies drafted do not consider the plight and implications on low-cost budget private schools,” he added. Another office-bearer Chandrakant Singh said budget schools were unable to upgrade their infrastructure and start upper middle and secondary classes because of the requirement of huge piece of land.

“We have set up our schools in slums and unauthorised colonies and provide education to children of those families who neither can afford the tuition fee of big private schools nor get seats for their wards in government schools. We demand the government to consider the built-up area of schools (floor-wise calculation) or number of classrooms and provision to allow our schools to run middle classes in the second shift,” Singh said.