The Srinagar based CBSE affiliated Delhi Public School (DPS) will resume normal functioning from December 3 after remaining close for past over five months of unrest in Kashmir.
After a prolonged closure, the DPS administration has decided to open the school from Saturday and ply its school buses for ferrying students from designated spots.
The school administration has given relaxation to the students on wearing school uniforms for attending the classes. However, it has asked students to carry the identity cards to their school for “security reasons”.
The school has decided to open school from 9 am to 3 pm on all days. “The buses will ply only on designated spots as mentioned on the school website. Uniform is not a must,” reads the statement issued by web administrator of the school.
Meanwhile, the decision to open school from Saturday has infuriated parents who accused the school administration for “making their kids a soft target” in the ongoing unrest.
“There is no safety for students as the school authorities have designated new bus stops on school website for school going children. The school is taking arbitrary decision,” said a group of parents during their protest in Press Enclave here today.
“As per the new bus route, students from Nawa Bazar will be picked by school bus at Khanyar and students from Eidgah have been asked to wait at Soura,” they said.
The Delhi Public School Srinagar informed parents that the school will start functioning from Saturday which prompted protests by parents as they accused the school authorities of putting the lives of their children at risk.
The school has also changed the pick-up points of children which parents say are away from their homes.
The parents are irked by the decision of school authorities to conduct the Term-2 exams of students via question papers at home along with the decision of school authorities to start the school from Saturday amidst shutdown.
Talking to Kashmir Post, Tariq Ahmad Rather an aggrieved parent said, “Today we visited the school because on Tuesday we were informed by school authorities that school is going to start functioning from Saturday and the existing pick up points for students travelling by busses have been rescheduled. The new bus pick points are far away from our homes. We will have to first take our kids to these points amidst security threat and then pick them up also from those very stops. We tried to reason with Vijay Dhar but instead of listening to our concerns he threatened us that he will close down the school in the valley”.
The parents also accused the school of playing with the future of their children while all other schools have awarded mass promotion to the students.
Commenting on the issue Mohammad Mauzam, another parent said, “The behaviour of the school authorities was so rude as if we were some thugs. They told us that it is up to us whether to send our kids to school or not. They made us pay full transport and tuition fee for the months of the unrest by withholding the results of our wards. This is pure blackmailing. And even after all this now they are asking us to conduct the term-2 exam of our wards at home and then they will evaluate it. Is this some kind of a joke”.
Pertinently the parents also alleged that the school has been arbitrarily charging huge amount of money from them under various pretexts like heating and printing charges. They accused the government of adopting a callous attitude and letting the school dictate the terms as per its wishes.
“This school is under no one’s control. They aren’t answerable to any authority. They are doing whatever they want. The government hasn’t been doing anything about our issues for so many years. They have this lackadaisical attitude while dealing with such schools. If the situation is normal in valley then why have they changed the stops and who will guarantee the safety of our children”, said Rafiq Ahmad an aggrieved parent.
Meanwhile contrary to the allegations of the parents, school authorities said, “We have only decided to start the school from Saturday so that the students can study and this exercise is not mandatory for all. There is going to be no attendance for this period. Those students who can travel conveniently can come and those can’t come don’t need to worry about it because it is optional.”
Interestingly the Chief Education Officer Arif Iqbal while commenting on the issue said, “Parents should lodge a complaint officially in my office and only then I can take some action. Nobody has approached us regarding this matter”.
