Book Seller –Private School Nexus in Jammu

The joint raid on the book sellers led by the ADC, Jammu Ansuya Jamwal on Wednesday to take stock of the quality of books sold by the book sellers is indeed a welcome move. The team led by the ADC comprised of the officials from the Legal Metrology Department, Labour Department and Education Department. Team raided the book sellers and the shops dealing in school uniforms. These raids were conducted in Kachi Chawni, Bahu Plaza, Kunjwani, Pacca Danga areas of Jammu city. This team found many discrepancies in the dealing of these book sellers and uniform sellers. Two shops were found selling the school uniforms without any approved rate list. Some shops were operating without the license. Book sellers were selling the books at exorbitant prices. And these books didn’t include the officially prescribed NCERT books. These shops were sealed and the shop owners were fined rupees 75,000.Book sellers have been indulging in this malpractice for quite a long time. The joint team that conducted the raids has revealed that the books being sold by the book sellers are based on the list provided by the schools on their websites. This makes the issue murkier. It means that there is a deep nexus going on between the private schools and book sellers in Jammu. It is indeed unfortunate that the private schools are violating the norms by prescribing the books that are not published by NCERT. By forcing the parents to purchase the books  that are unauthorised is leading to non-standardisation of education. This malpractice is not restricted to prescribing the non-NCERT books but the private schools in Jammu are making sure that the parents are forced to purchase the guides and refreshers with the text books. The schools in Jammu must be taken to task for this. If the students have to purchase the guide books with non –NCERT books then what is the utility of teachers in schools and what is the need for the classroom teaching meant to develop the educational acumen of the students. It has become a tradition when the admission season starts the private schools not only indulge in violating the prescribed norms for the course books but also they indulge in charging exorbitant admission fees. This trend has eroded the school education system and eroded the faith of the society in the schooling system. This fleeing of money from the parents and prescribing sub-standard books to share the commission with book sellers and the publishers is leading to a dysfunctional education system. To make it worse the schools are hand in glove with the uniform sellers as well. Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory Administration must take this issue seriously and break this unholy nexus that is destabilising the school education system. Private schools, book sellers and uniform sellers must be taken to task. So that the parents are saved from this mafia and students are imparted the quality education as per the national education policy that ensures the reasonable and quality education for all students. There is an urgent need to constitute a comprehensive committee headed by a credible educationist having members from all sections of stakeholders. So that this mafia is stopped from fleecing the people in the name of education. The ADC Jammu has done a commendable job. Now this needs to be followed up in a structured manner. So that school education system is saved from this unholy nexus.