Certain prominent schools of the vale have asked the parents of the wards studying in these schools to deposit fees for the intervening period of Jul and September 2016. This period, as we all know and have been through, has been one of indefinite and open ended protests in Kashmir following Burhan Wani’s killing.
Productive economic activity has been practically dead during this period and people of the vale, excluding a small segment of public sector employees have suffered economically.
Most people-excluding government employees- have not had any net cash inflows flowing in this period. While the schools claim that their staff have remained unpaid for this period and this constitutes a major reason for the demand of the fees, the parents(or at least, the majority of them) too have been victims.
It also needs to be stated that the schools that have demanded fees are private entities out there not for the public good or interest but for private gain. Yes, the quality of education provided and imparted by these schools might be different and of a higher order than their government counter parts but they charge a hefty sum for the provision of education.
Being private enterprises that charge a premium for education, and given their scale and size, it stands to reason that these schools must have financial buffers or what in corporate parlance is called “ retained earnings” from which they can finance expenditures and costs that these schools incurred- both of a fixed and the variable variety. The scale and size of these schools suggests that they don’t run on shoe string budgets and that demanding fees at this point in time for paying wage bills sounds like a stretch. However, hypothetically speaking, even if it may be conceded that some of these schools need finance, this is the wrong time to demand a lump sum payment for the past three months where people have been struggling financially and economically.
Private schools have options. First , they can approach the banks and solicit the banks to finance their funding gap. Given that private schools- especially prominent ones- are businesses that have a guaranteed and recurrent cash inflow, banks should not be loath in financing this gap. What makes these schools loath to approach the banks? Interest costs over the principal might constitute one answer. However, ethically and morally, it is and remains wrong to solicit money from parents than banks to save these costs.
Now, even if, we concede, for the sake of argument that there might be issues (technical or otherwise) with seeking bank funding, these schools could approach the parents and solicit assistance in the nature of a bail out for the schools- say, in the nature of a cash flow reprieve (some amount of money that could be pooled and a financial reprieve given to staff). But , nay, the schools want lump sum money for three months that many parents, at this point in time cannot bear or afford. In some ways, this demand constitutes coercion given that some or many parents would fear that their wards would suffer or mayu be forced to suffer if they cannot cough up the monies now.
Kashmir Observer takes a strong note and view of the schools’ irrational and unreasonable demand at a time when sobriety, ethics , morality and humanity warrant that a more humane approach be taken, This assumes saliency and urgency at a time when Kashmir is suffering at many fronts and levels , which , in turn warrants a collective response by members of society and stakeholders that is humane and allievates our collective miseries and burdens; not aggravates and the increases them. The approach and attitude of schools that demand lump sum fees for the past period- one that has been characterised by misery, death and depradation- suggests that want to aggravate the misery that Kashmiri society is undergoing. This , given the vocation of education, constitutes a tragedy and must stop!
Read the story: Schools Force Parents To Pay For Curfewed Period
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