Private schools responsible for tagging fees, not students: BOSE

Srinagar, Feb 11: Amid complaints that students of private schools were charged the tagging fees by the respective schools, the officials at J&K Board of School Education (BOSE) have clarified that the tagging fees should not be charged to the students who have been included in the tagging process with nearby government schools.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Deputy Secretary BOSE Basharat Ahmad said that it was the responsibility of the concerned management of the private school to pay the tagging fee towards the government school with which the students of the institution had been tagged.

“Tagging fees must be borne by the school management and should not be passed on to the students scheduled to appear in the class 10th to 12th annual board examinations. This is not an issue caused by the children, as they are not at fault. The problem lies with the schools,” the official said.

During the past few months, the BOSE tagged “on-roll” students of dozens of private academic institutions in Kashmir, particularly those operating on proprietary land with “expired affiliations”.

The separate orders in this regard were issued by the Deputy Secretary BOSE citing the expiration of affiliation of private academic institutions of the Kashmir division in October 2021 and 2022, coupled with the failure of the concerned management to submit the requisite case files for further extension with necessary certificates and safety documents in terms of standing rules and norms.

Following the tagging of students of these private schools, the concerned principals and cluster heads of government schools were instructed to secure necessary discharge certificates for the tagged students.

They were asked to authenticate and submit the Permission-cum-Admission (PCA) forms for classes 10th, 11th, and 12th, along with Renewal Registration Returns as applicable.

“This process should be completed with the normal prescribed fee, as outlined in notifications issued by the Director Academics of BOSE,” the BOSE order reads.

As per the order, the private schools involved in the tagging process were asked to remit a tagging fee equivalent to the periodical inspection fee for the current academic session 2023-2024 towards the government schools. Following the tagging of schools, scores of students complained that they were asked by their school management to pay the tagging fees.

“The students are not supposed to pay the tagging fees. Tagging has not been done because of any fault of students,” a group of students said.

However, the BOSE official said that the tagging fee, as prescribed by the board, should be paid by the schools and not passed on to the students.