All private school associations demand re-opening of schools

Lucknow, 23 July : 'Manthan', a meeting of all the private school associations of Uttar Pradesh was held today to address various problems related to private schools like continuous closure of schools for almost 500 days, various discrepancies of the RTE Act, the proposal of bringing private schools under RTI Act and so on. The participants deeply pondered over these issues and called upon the state government to take a serious look on their demands. Representatives of all private school associations of UP from Lucknow, Varanasi, Aligarh, Kanpur, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, Gonda and various other districts of UP took part in 'Manthan' held at CMS Kanpur Road auditorium today and raised a demand the state re-open all the schools of in the wake of constantly decreasing cases of Covid-19 besides registering their strong opposition to the proposal of bringing all private schools under Right to Information (RTI) Act, terming it as an arbitrary, unconstitutional act. Drawing attention towards all the discrepancies in the Act, they demanded immediate redressal from the state government.

Mr Kulbhushan Sharma, President, National Independent Schools Allians (NISA) said that Uttar Pradesh has been a pioneer in dealing with Corona, but while states like Bihar, Punjab, Haryana have opened their school, it is ironic that Uttar Pradesh schools are still closed. Mr Anil Agarwal, President, Unaided Schools Association, said that discussions can solve most complex of problems. We want to convince the authorities about our problems and issues in a peaceful, democratic manner. Mr Vishal Jain, President, Confederation of Independent Schools, Meerut, said that closure of schools is not a loss to individual, its a loss to the nation. Mr Atul Srivastava, President, UP Schools Association, called for RTE
re-imbursement at the rate of the schools' expenditure per child instead of on a rate fixed by the government. CMS Founder, Dr Jagdish Gandhi appealed to the school managers to create public opinion about their problems to make a positive impact on the government. Prof. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, President, CMS, emphasized on the unity of various schools associations of the state and suggested formation of a state level organization under the banner of National Independent Schools Alliance. Mr Bharat Mallik, Founding President, NISA; Mr S. Madhusudan, Telangana Association; Mr Sushil Gupta, Association of Progressive Schools, Agra; Mr Shyam Pachauri, President, CBSE School Association, Mr Rahul Kesarwani, Mr Rakesh Nandan, Mr O P Chauhan, Mr Pradeep Gupta, Mr Neeraj Gupta, Mr Neeraj Jaiswal, Mr Shiv Murti Mishra and many more expressed their opinion at the meeting.

A press conference was held at the end of the meeting wherein all participants unanimously called for re-opening of schools without further delay as blackboard teaching has no replacement and children must not face any further loss of education which is hampering their overall growth. They said that the number of corona cases is rapidly decreasing in Uttar Pradesh and in next few days the number would reach zero. In such a situation, schools should now open immediately. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has also given its consent in favour of opening of schools.