Due to severe financial crisis owing to lockdown, an all-India organisation of private schools wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday requesting him to allot funds to education institutes so that they could pay salaries to their staff and manage other expenses such as rent, instalment of various bank loans, maintenance, electricity and water bills and property taxes.
Syed Shamael Ahmad, president of the Private Schools and Children Welfare Association wrote to PM that their staff are on the verge of starvation despite working hard to provide online education. The association, headquartered in Patna, claims to have around 2 lakh members across the country. Addressing media at a press conference, Ahmad said similar letters requesting funds to pay salaries will be sent by officials and teachers of its private school members to the PMO. PMO is likely to receive 20 lakh letters by June 30, he said.
The association suggested that the government should give the amount of money they spend per child in its schools to the private schools as well as per its student strength for five months, March to July this year. Ahmad also mentioned in his letter that data on individual schools have been submitted on UDISE (Unified District Information System for Education) that maintains the database about schools in India.
UDISE was initiated by the MHRD in 2012-13 where schools regularly update information on the number of students and employees among others. Due to coronavirus induced lockdown, the parents are unable to pay fees as many of them too are facing financial crisis due to paycuts or job loss, he said. In his letter, he wrote, “We seek your help and believe that you will not disappoint us. Kindly transfer funds into the school accounts of private schools who are struggling to make their ends meet without compromising on the online teaching.”
Source: Moneycontrol.com