Education or Exploitation? Private schools force parents to buy costly textbooks

Srinagar, Nov 4: As a new academic session begins in Kashmir, parents are once again caught in the familiar ordeal of private schools dictating where and what to buy, forcing them to purchase textbooks from selected bookshops at exorbitant rates that run as high as Rs 7000 a set. What should mark the start of learning has, for many, turned into a season of financial anxiety and frustration.

Parents say this exploitative practice, in place for years, continues unchecked as the School Education Department (SED) fails to act against the schools accused of fleecing them under the guise of “academic standards.”

A receipt shared by a parent revealed that a single set of textbooks costs nearly Rs 7000. Parents allege that schools compel them to purchase the books only from particular shops, leaving no room for price comparison or bargaining.

“This is not just about high prices,” said an aggrieved parent.

“Schools have made education a business. They change the curriculum every year so that old books can’t be reused by siblings. We’re forced to queue outside bookshops to buy new sets every session.”

Many parents accuse the authorities of deliberate inaction. “Private schools have built an empire of their own. There’s no oversight. The department’s silence makes it complicit in this money-minting business,” another parent said.

The controversy resurfaces every admission season but fades without accountability. While parents look to the Fee Fixation and Regulation Committee (FFRC) for intervention, the committee maintains that regulating textbook sales does not fall under its purview.

“Our mandate is limited to fixing and regulating school fees. Issues like textbook sales are the responsibility of the School Education Department,” an FFRC official said.

Officials acknowledged that a proposal had been floated earlier to empower the FFRC to oversee the overall functioning of private schools, but it was later dropped.

“The department didn’t want to upset these influential schools,” one official admitted.

Parents say that some schools, especially those claiming to follow “international curricula” like Cambridge or Oxford boards, use it as an excuse to bypass regulations and justify inflated prices. “Even if they teach any foreign curriculum, they must publish the textbook list on their websites before the new session so parents can buy them freely,” a parent suggested.

When contacted, Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) Naseer Ahmad Wani said he was not yet fully briefed on the matter. “I will convene a meeting in this regard and see to what extent the department can regulate these schools under the Education Act,” he told Greater Kashmir.