Private schools in Ludhiana allege ‘discrimination’ by Education Department

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 7

Private schools managements in the city have alleged discrimination by the Education department towards them. The management committee of private schools say the Department is strengthening enrolment in government schools while tightening noose over the private ones.

The management committees said no written guidelines on whether teachers could come to schools or not were received by them but in routine, teams of the Education Department visited schools to check and stop teachers from coming to schools.

Government schoolteachers, on the other hand, have been reporting on duty and are visit door-to-door to enrol students.

Principals of an aided private school near Samrala Chowk said teachers in government schools were going to schools, taking online classes, visiting door-to-door to encourage parents to enrol their kids in government school while private schools had been subjected to restrictions.

“The Education Department is acting smart. It has not issued any guidelines in writing but at the same time, is not allowing our teaching and non-teaching staff to enter school premises. The Department also sends their teams to check whether teachers have come to the school or not. If the Department wants to provide best education to children, they should let us perform as well. Why is the Department misusing their powers?” said the principal.

Voicing similar views, Harmit Kaur, Nankana Public School principal, said rules should be equal for both government and private schools. “If 50 per cent strength of teachers is allowed in government schools, why are teachers in private schools being asked not to come? Why the Education Department teams are visiting only private schools to check the attendance of the teaching and the non-teaching staff?” the principal said.

DEO Lakhvir Singh, however, said it had come to the notice of the Department that the teaching and the non-teaching staff of private schools were reporting to the campus, and that is why, teams were constituted to keep private schools in check.

He added that he had no authority to comment anything else and if private schools had any problem, they could send representation to higher authorities in the administration.