Page 54 - EducationWorld June 2020

Cover Story

Kulbhushan Sharma fees waiver/deferment circulars to pri- Under the law, it’s mandatory for
President, National Independent Schools vate school managements. What’s your schools to be non-profit institu-
comment?
tions. Private schools often estab-
Alliance NISA has strongly opposed these cir- lished with large capital outlays,
culars and directives. If BPS schools are also obliged to pay electricity,
are not allowed to collect fees, the water, property and other charges
country’s K-12 education system will at commercial rates. It is advisable
be severely damaged. Budget schools to accord education the status of an
don’t have any other source of in- important service industry similar to
come to pay staff salaries. Therefore, health, telecom and electricity where
we have insisted that there should be for-profit entities have immensely
no fees waiver or deferment for the benefitted the public. NISA believes
academic year 2020-21. the option to choose between non-
Instead, we demand that state profit and for-profit models should
governments should immediately be available to all educators and
release the amounts owing to BPS on education institutions.
account of having admitted children What are your future plans for NISA?
under s.12 (1) (c) of the RTE Act,
2009, which in some states hasn’t NISA is working intensively to save
been paid for over three years. affordable private schools through
Secondly, tuition fees for the next six our Save Education in India national
campaign. This is the time to raise
months should be paid by the Cen-
A tral/state government to BPS directly our voice against the neglect of
commerce graduate of Punjab
government schools and call for rec-
or to parents of children to enable
University, Dr. Kulbhushan
ognition of private schools as equal
Sharma is president of the
Moreover, NISA has petitioned
National Independent Schools them to pay school fees. contributors to K-12 education. The
Alliance which has a membership state governments that have di- success of our campaign will improve
of 60,000 mainly budget private rected private schools not to raise the contribution of BPS to national
schools (BPS) with an aggregate tuition fees for 2020-21, to withdraw development, and secure the future
enrolment of 10 million children. this directive. Schools have to bear of our students and livelihoods of
expenses for infrastructure for online millions of teachers and support staff
The Covid-19 crisis has majorly dis- learning, revamp buses and vans, in the country’s private schools.
rupted the education system. How has
NISA responded to this challenge? sanitise buildings and buses, provide Shukla Bose
masks, safety kits to children and
To address these challenges, NISA all employees. All this will require Founder, Parikrma Humanity Foundation
has started a ‘Save Education in substantial investment and capital
India’ campaign. This is the time to expenditure. ormerly the most highly-remu-
save learning, teachers and schools. nerated woman CEO of India,
Towards this end, all our member What are your Top 3 proposals for re- FShukla Bose is the promoter-
schools are actively working with the forming school education in India? director of the Bangalore-based Pari-
Central and state governments. Fund students, not schools. It’s been krma Humanity Foundation (PHF,
a long-standing demand of NISA that estb.2003) which has established
What are the major challenges confront- the amount spent by government per
ing budget private schools in the new four free-of-charge K-12 schools and
Covid-19 era? child in government schools should one junior college with an aggregate
be given to parents by way of educa-
The biggest fear of BPS school tion vouchers to enable them to send enrolment of 1,500 slum children
promoters is maintenance of school their children to a government or
buildings that have remained shut private school of their choice.
during the prolonged lockdown Secondly, separate school regula-
period. Moreover, school buses tion, financing and delivery func-
and vans have also been neglected tions. Currently, government is the
throughout the lockdown. Their regulator, financer and provider of
engines may be damaged causing education. This has resulted in bi-
huge loss to the schools. School ased monitoring of government and
managements should be given private schools and lack of transpar-
permission to allow drivers and ency in financing education. It is
cleaners to join duty so they can important that these three roles are
maintain the buses during the separated and handled by separate
lockdown. Most of these vehicles entities as recommended by the
have been bought on loans which draft National Education Policy 2019
have to be serviced despite the report of the Dr. K. Kasturirangan
lockdown.
Committee.
Several state governments have issued Thirdly, allow for-profit schools.

54 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2020