The Hill Districts Private Schools' Association (HiDiPSAM) on Wednesday announced to suspend all modes of teaching, any school-related activities in hill districts from September 17 to September 21.
A statement issued by president of HiDiPSAM, Richard L Haokip stated that the association is compelled to take up the agitation as the education department has failed to review the orders after repeated requests and appeals.
On June 20, the commissioner of the education department issued an order setting a bar for all the schools and aided schools in the state on collection of tuition fee and payment of salary to teachers.
Schools with enrolment rate of less than 200 students are asked to waive students’ tuition fee and pay 50 per cent salaries to teaching and non-teaching. The same shall be applied with schools with enrolments rate from 200 to 7000.
For schools having enrolments over 700, the department order not only waive students’ tuition fee but pay 100 per cent salaries to teaching and non-teaching. It is learnt that around 300 private schools in hill districts are affiliated to HiDiPSAM.
Earlier this month, the association drew the attention of the state that teachers who are engaged in the online teaching-learning process are not able to make their ends meet as private schools are barred from collecting tuition fees to pay the salary of the teachers.
Haokip said if the department fails to review or revoke its June 20 order by September 21 the association will be compelled to take a resource to ensure that the interests of hill parents, teachers and students are safeguarded at all cost from the coercive orders of the education department.
He appealed to the parents, students and civil society organisations to cooperate with the association’s struggle and to understand the difficult situation that the private schools are forced into by the Government.
