Private schools continue to flout Govt orders

 In the latest, Delhi Public School (DPS) and some other Central Board of School Education (CBSE)-run institutions are accused of taking students and their parents for a ride.
Apart from keeping the school open in alleged violation of prescribed vacations, DPS Athwajan has decided that final examinations would be held in freezing December. The students and their parents said the school has announced the date-sheet which states that the exams would be held from December 16 to December 26. DSEK has already announced that all schools including private ones would be off for winter vacations from November 24 for classes upto 8th whereas senior classes would be off from December 8.
The complainants said it would be impossible for the flood-hit students to appear in annual exams in bitter cold when many of them lost their houses, household, books and even uniforms. “Our house was devastated by floods. We don’t even have proper clothes then to talk of books or notes, all of which got washed away by floods and we have been camping at a relative’s place. Amid this crisis it will be impossible for me to prepare for exams,” cried a class 5th student. “We are helpless as the school authorities are unwilling to buy our pleas even though exams of such classes are not conducted by the CBSE but the school itself,” the complainants said.
Some parents said the school being badly-hit by floods was still damp. “Fungal growth is recurring on the damp walls and it’s terribly cold inside,” said a parent, a doctor by profession.
When contacted a school spokesman said the institution was run by CBSE norms adding that classes and exams have to be held accordingly. He said the school had no issues to postpone exams or even give mass promotion provided the government decides so and gets requisite relaxation from the CBSE. “In the interest of schoolchildren, we don’t have any reservations even on Mass Promotion provided the state government decides so and picks up the issue with CBSE,” he said adding that Director Education could play a key role in this regard. “He can resolve the issue with the CBSE.”
Meanwhile Director Education Tariq Ali Mir has taken a serious note of the complaints. “Such complaints have come to my notice. I have constituted a Task Force, which will visit the school and submit their report for further action,” Mir told Greater Kashmir. He said no school would be allowed to take schoolchildren and their parents for a ride and that violation of any government directive would be seriously dealt with under norms.