Jammu’s CBSE Affiliated Private Schools Need Course Correction

Unprecedented degradation of the educational standards is leading to the depletion of quality learning among the students in Jammu’s public schools affiliated to the CBSE. Over the years the focus on activities like so called fests on an almost weekly basis is creating an unconventional system that is telling upon the conventional academic system. Students are witnessing less classes and more activities. It has started worrying the parents who are paying hefty fees with a hope to impart quality education to their children. A random survey of the private school chains in Jammu affiliated to CBSE will reveal that there have been fewer classes and more activities every week that breaks the academic rhythm of the students. There are reports that make alarming revelations. Students are overworked with the fests and activities and prefer to stay home. This makes students disinterested in attending the schools. It leads to the negative grooming of the students. The students studying in pre matric classes are being groomed in such a way that they are merging as the generation who are losing the exposure to the quality classes. When students stay away from schools due to excessive fests and lesser classes, it means that there is a need to put some sense into this policy that is anti-thesis of the quality teaching. Standard teaching procedure has to be the cardinal principle of schooling at all levels. It cannot be replaced by the unwanted activities that tell upon the academic health of the students. It ends in creating a generation of students who are least interested in visiting the schools. The policy makers need to impose regulations in letter and spirit. Excessive activities having no relation to the grooming of the students have to be abandoned. So that focus is laid on the development of the students in a comprehensive manner. Injecting activities at the cost of academics is quality education. A stop has to be put on the process of fleecing the money in the name of activities. Grooming of students at the primary and the matric level involves a balance that develops a sense of acceptability in the students. Weekly holidays and unwanted activities are killing the purpose of school education in Jammu. Comprehension skills among students are to be inculcated in this stage, which is lacking. Gone are the days when the expert teachers used their experience to develop the minds and the bodies of the students to emerge as the men of tomorrow. What is happening in the so called elite public schools of Jammu in terms of education must concern the civil society. The civil society must put its foot forward to inject a sense in the management of these public schools. Moreover, there is an urgent need to upgrade and multiply the quality government schools in Jammu and Kashmir so that dependence on the private schools is reduced and the parents are saved from exorbitant fee structures of these schools affiliated to CBSE. No doubt private and government schools have been operating in tandem and imparting education but over the years the so called elite public schools in Jammu have merged as the money fleecing hubs in the name of standard education centres. On the contrary these schools owned by the business classes in Jammu have ended in imposing a financial burden on the common people and rendered children handicapped in terms of skills that are needed in terms of quality education. It has to be underlined by the Jammu and Kashmir UT Government that quality education does not mean excessive fee structure devoid of accountability but dedicated school management that is responsible towards the nation and society in these CBSE affiliated private schools in Jammu.At the same time the parents must shun dependence on the public schools and not invest in false prestige. Instead they must start adopting the schools run by the government. CBSE must also seek the feedback from the parents and students studying in Jammu’s public school chains so that immediate course correction is done.