Scores of private schools without recognition

Srinagar, Dec 16: The recognition of scores of private educational institutions continues to remain pending for the last many years across Kashmir as the department has withheld the process of their registration.

An official said the scores of private schools are without registration and recognition for the last few years and their files are pending with the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DESK) for more than one year.

"There are some schools which have land issues and their files are pending till date," an official said.

The officials said some schools have complete documents and have submitted their files to the DSEK but the process is withheld for the last two years.

"For the last few years, the department stopped renewing registration and recognition of private schools due to which the cases of schools with complete and even incomplete documents are pending," the official said.

The issue of recognition and registration came into limelight two years ago after the School Education Department (SED) directed the JK Board of School Education (BOSE) to tagg the on roll students of private schools with expired registration, with nearby government schools.

This year, the Government in October decided to grant provisional affiliation to all the schools which were last year tagged with nearby government schools in Kashmir for operating on government land with "expired affiliations".

The decision was taken as a one time exemption, to grant the provisional affiliation to all these schools for JK Board registration of the students from class 9th to 12th respectively.

The SED further directed the JKBOSE authorities to extend all board related facilities including Registration Return (RR) forms, eligibility, migration and examination to such schools for sessions 2023-24 and 2024-25 for classes 9th to 12th.

In a latest move, the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) sought the status of the recognition of the private educational institutions of the Kashmir division.

In this regard, a communication has been sent to all the Chief Education Officers (CEO) to furnish the details within a day.

As per the official communication issued on December 13 of 2024, the CEOs have been asked to furnish the requisite information to the Directorate positively.

As per the official document, the directorate has sought the details about the schools including name and location besides the details upt which class (8th, 10th or 12th) the school was running.

“Submit the recognition status while mentioning the present status of the recognition if it has expired or up to which date it is valid,” the official document reads.

The CEOs have been asked to furnish details of schools without recognition and the “reasons for not having valid recognition.”

“The information in soft copy, may kindly be mailed to the directorate as well,” the official communication reads.

An official said that while submitting the zone wise status of the recognition status of private schools, it came to fore that several schools are without valid recognition across Kashmir.

"The reason behind this is either the schools have incomplete documents or the schools are operating on State land and have not been given the NoC by the competent authorities," the official said.