Page 44 - EducationWorld October 2020

Cover Story

Private schools demands charter ing platforms.

• Designate education institutions as ‘priority sector’ for
ver the past six months, several private schools asso- bank loans.
ciations across the country have repeatedly petitioned • Issue ordinance permitting for-profit companies and firms
Othe Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Union education to invest in schools. This will facilitate free flow of capital from
ministry and state governments to allocate monetary grants and domestic and international financial markets into education.
other concessions to private schools, which host 47.5 percent • Withdraw state government circulars permitting parents to
of India’s school-going children, hard hit by forced closure and defer fee payments until resumption of conventional school-
unpaid tuition and other fees since mid-March because of the ing.
Covid-19 pandemic. The major demands of private schools • Exempt private schools from paying water and sewage
associations are: taxes for the fiscal year 2020-21.
• Provide a Rs.450,000 crore financial aid package for pre- • Central/state governments should pay the ESI (Employees
schools to class XII education. State Insurance) and PF (provident fund) amounts norma-
• Introduce a school voucher scheme under which 12 vouch- tively payable by school managements, into the bank ac-
ers with a face value of Rs.2,500 are issued to 150 million EWS counts of private school teachers/staff for the academic
(economically weaker section) households countrywide. Private year 2020-21.
schools can redeem these from state governments which will be • Direct state governments to release reimbursement
compensated by the Centre from the Rs.450,000 crore financial amounts payable by them to private schools which have ad-
aid package for schools. mitted poor children under s.12 (1) (c) of the RTE Act, 2009.
• Extend the moratorium on interest payable to all loans availed • Issue directives to state road transport ministries to extend
by private school managements to purchase school buses, until the fitness certificate of school buses by one year.
March 31, 2021. • Underwrite financial and legal liability in the event of teach-
• Direct public sector banks to provide low-interest unsecured ers and/or students contracting Covid-19 infection when
loans to private school managements with a moratorium of 12 schools reopen.
months on interest to enable them to tide over the financial crisis
precipitated by non-payment of tuition fees by parents since Source: EW compilation based on petitions filed by NISA, FICCI-
mid-March, and for investment in digital/online infrastructure. ARISE, Unaided Private Schools Association (UP), Independent
• Grant GST tax exemption for lease/rent/construction of school Schools Federation of India — District Ghaziabad and Associa-
buildings and other infrastructure including edtech online learn- tion of Unaided Private Schools (MP).

puter devices (desktop, laptop, tablet, tivity to them. Indeed, government
etc). Moreover with an estimated 18 should declare digital connectivity a
million people having lost their live- public utility like electricity and water
lihoods during the past six months, supply. Failure to provide millions of
24 percent of Indian households that children learning continuity for such
own smartphones are unable to afford a prolonged period of time will hurt
Internet access charges for their chil- the Indian economy for decades to
dren’s online classes. come,” warns Nooraine Fazal, co-
Tragically, for the overwhelming founder and managing trustee of the
majority of children in government highly-ranked Inventure Academy,
and budget private schools, online ed- Bangalore (estb.2005).
ucation has been a non-starter. Taking Moreover as if to compound the
cognisance of this huge disparity in sin of failure to provide budgetary
online learning access, on September resources required to ensure learning
18 the Delhi high court directed pri- Rai: massive dropouts warning continuity for 132 million children
vate unaided schools in the national enrolled in the country’s 1.2 million
capital to provide digital gadgets and this order in the Supreme Court. government schools, several state
Internet connections to poor students “The Central and state govern- governments have issued a rain of ill-
to access online classes during the ments have cruelly neglected to pro- considered circulars and notifications
pandemic, and claim reimbursement vide online classes for government deferring fees payment to private
from the Delhi government under the school children. They need to urgently schools, which educate 47.5 percent
Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009. create a digital access fund to purchase of the country’s in-school children.
The Delhi government has challenged gadgets and provide Internet connec- Presumably, discerning an opportu-

44 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2020