Private schools compel parents to buy books, uniforms from specific shops

Srinagar, Mar 22: In violation of government orders, private schools in the valley are forcing students to buy textbooks and uniforms from specific shopkeepers, parents alleged.
School Education Department in November last year asked the private schools not to insist parents to purchase to keep the textbooks and uniform available in the open market.
Irrespective of the quality of the school uniform, several schools have forced the parents to buy them from “specific sellers only”, President Parents’ Association of Privately Administered Schools (PAPAS), Asma Lone, said.
Lone said, “There is definitely a monopoly of these sellers.”
“To add to that, some schools have asked the students to wear a different uniform almost every day. There is a lot of pressure on the parents.”
As per Dr Abdul Qayoom, a parent from north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, the textbooks of the students “are not available at all in the open market”.
Qayoom said that a leading private school in the district was “itself selling the books inside the institution premises”.
“Uniforms are available at just two shops,” he said.
A leading private school in Srinagar “has come up with an excuse that the uniforms bought from open market have a colour variation”, Khurshid Ahmad Khoja, a parent said.
“We cannot buy uniforms from the open market and have been forced to buy the same from selected shopkeepers. The schools even change uniforms every year at will without taking parents on board,” Khoja added.
Even after the government’s orders, Mudassir Ahmad, a parent from Budgam, said that a private school in the district was “selling the textbooks within its premises”.
Over the matter, Secretary School Education Department, Farooq Ahmad Shah said, “Let the parents lodge a complaint with the Directorate of School Education. We will take action against the erring schools. The parents must come forward.”