Uttar Pradesh private schools warn to stop online classes, urges govt to allow fee hike

NEW DELHI: Unaided private schools association (UPSA) has threatened to stop online classes if the Uttar Pradesh government does not reopen schools in the state. UP private schools have asked to resume offline classes from February 7.

“A large number of private schools in Uttar Pradesh have no option but to shut down their schools if the state government does not allow them to increase fees,” according to various media reports.

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Saying that the school closure has affected their performance, the UPSA said, “There was no salary revision of our teachers and staff because schools were not allowed to increase fees. In these trying times, a few member schools will be forced to shut down if the government does not let them increase fees for the third successive year.”

According to the Annual Status of Education Report ( ASER 2021 ), Uttar Pradesh saw a 13.2 percentage points increase in enrolment in government schools since 2018 for children aged six to 14 years – the corresponding levels are Classes 1 to 8. This was the sharpest increase of all the states with Kerala, at second, registering a growth of 11.9 points.

Sanjeev Sinha, convenor, RTE Forum, Uttar Pradesh said: “Other reasons behind increased enrollments [in individual schools] is that several primary and junior schools in the state have been merged into composite schools. Also during Covid, several low-cost private schools have shut shop in rural areas of UP whose children have shifted to government schools.”

As per the last order issued by the Uttar Pradesh government, the closure of schools was extended from January 30 to February 15. The Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) is also expected to conduct UP Class 10, 12 board exams 2022 after March 10 as the state will go to poll in seven phases from February 10 to March 7, 2022.