An association of private schools, particularly in rural areas, is asking for a relief package from the state government.
A section of private schools, particularly in rural areas, suspended online classes this week urging the state government to look into their request for a relief package. 12,800 schools, under the umbrella of Recognised Unaided Private Schools Association (RUPSA), sought a Rs 1000 crore relief package from the state government to pay salaries of teachers. RUPSA state president Lokesh Talikatte told TNM that the relief package was necessitated because the state government had not helped private schools especially in rural areas, which are struggling since the lockdown."Like government schools, private schools could not collect fees earlier this year (of the previous academic year) because of the government order passed during the lockdown asking schools not to demand fees. This meant that many schools did not receive fees from parents and schools could not ask for the fees. This meant that many schools struggled to pay their staff," Lokesh told TNM. The association met a ministerial level delegation on Monday afternoon after earlier complaining that they did not get an audience with the Education Minister S Suresh Kumar, the administrators of CBSE, ICSE and corporate schools. Lokesh said that the association was asking for a moratorium on loans, postponement of EMI payments and a relief package from the state government. He said that online classes will be suspended over the Christmas period and the association hopes to get the state government to discuss their demands before the festive period is over. "Rural schools have suffered the brunt of the lockdown as well. This issue has not been discussed by the government. We want to highlight issues faced by smaller schools in rural areas," said Lokesh. However, other school managements including the Karnataka Associated Managements of English Medium Schools (KAMS) and Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association did not support the call to suspend online classes. Officials said that plans to provide aid for private schools were not fulfilled this year due to other crises that the government had to face. Students in private schools, even in rural areas, have had online classes since the start of the academic year unlike their government school counterparts. The students receive notes and instructions from teachers via WhatsApp. "This was a challenge for me because I did not have a smart phone at home and I had to ask my father to get one to use for my classes," says Tanushree, a 13-year-old student of class 8 in Srivali High School, a private school in Uttara Kannada district. Government school students in the state have not had online classes since June. The Vidyagama scheme which involved teachers teaching students in community spaces was scrapped in October after reports of COVID-19 cases. It will be restarted on January 1 for students of classes 6 to 9 while normal classes will resume in schools for students of classes 10 and 12.
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