TAGGING ROW | JKBOSE affiliation committee to meet on Jan 29

Srinagar, Jan 20: The Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (BOSE) has asked private schools with expired affiliation to submit their extension case files for affiliation renewal.

The decision has come ahead of the scheduled meeting of the UT level Affiliation Committee of BOSE on January 29, 2024, and the board has extended a final opportunity to private high and higher secondary schools in J&K to get renewal of their registration.

An official notification issued by Joint Secretary (General, Kashmir Division) BOSE informed all the heads of private high and higher secondary schools in J&K that institutions with expired affiliations from previous academic sessions are granted a chance to resubmit their extension case files.

“These schools include those whose extension requests were previously rejected for various reasons,” the notification reads.

It states that the concerned institutions should provide the necessary No Objection Certificates (NOCs), Safety Certificates, and the prescribed affiliation fee.

The deadline for submission of all the documentation and certificates has been set for January 24, 2024, and the submission process is to be completed through the official website www.jkbose.nic.in.

However, incomplete submission or documentation by the concerned academic institutions should render them ineligible for release of board related facilities for the current academic session 2023-2024, and the BOSE should be at liberty to proceed accordingly,” the notification reads.

The decision to extend and renew the registration of private schools has come at a time when the BOSE has already tagged “on roll” students of over 60 private schools across Kashmir, with nearby government schools for appearing in class 10th, 11th, and 12th annual examination.

The decision was taken as the J&K Board said that these 60 private academic institutions of Kashmir were operating on proprietary land with “expired affiliations”.

As per the BOSE order, the schools failed to furnish their extension case file which prompted the BOSE to tag the students of these institutions with the nearby government schools.

As per the BOSE order, the move was taken as the affiliation of these private academic institutions of Kashmir division expired in October 2021-2022 coupled with the failure of the concerned school managements to submit the requisite case files for further extension with necessary certificates, safety documents, in terms of standing rules and norms.

Apart from the 60 schools whose list was notified by the BOSE, it had withheld the release of registration renewal forms of premier educational institutions of Baramulla as well, who have been asked to get their students tagged with the nearby schools.

One such school is one of the oldest missionary schools operating in Baramulla from over 100 years.

The school was denied the registration forms of students despite the intervention of the office of Lieutenant Governor (LG).

The Under Secretary in the office of LG, Mayank Sharma sent an official communication to the Secretary Revenue Department J&K regarding the permission to register students and renewal of lease for St Joseph's School Barmulla.

“This has reference to the enclosed application received in this Secretariat from Ivan Pereira, President, Diocese of Jammu-Srinagar Education Society, regarding the Permission to Register students and renewal of lease for St Joseph's School Baramulla. In this context, I am desired to forward the said application for appropriate action, under norms,” the official communication reads.

An official functionary of the school said that all the efforts have failed as the management was informed by the Education Department that one school alone cannot be given any relaxation. We were informed that the department finds some way out for such good schools who are in the same situation. But now the students will have to appear through government school,” the school functionary said.

Meanwhile, the J&K High Court has issued a notice to Chairman JKBOSE, Chairman JKBOSE Parikshat Singh Manhas for not complying to the previous orders issued by the Court regarding the release of registration forms of the students.

“In a pending writ petition WP(C) 2975/2023, this court by virtue of an order dated November 18 of 2023 came to direct the writ respondents to provisionally accord recognition and affiliation to the petitioner's school and also to release the Registration Return Forms with respect to the students of the petitioner's schools,” the High Court notice reads.

“The learned counsel for the petitioner herein submits that the said direction of this court has gone begging as the respondents herein have not bothered to act in compliance to the direction so given by this Court and hence, a case for non-compliance of the court direction is made out,” it reads.

"The petitioner to furnish registered postal covers within a period of seven days whereupon the Registrar Judicial, Srinagar to issue notice to the respondents. List along with CCP(S) Nos. 1/2024, 2/2024, 5/2024, 6/2024, 7/2024, 8/2024, 9/2024, 10/2024 and CCP(S) 11/2024 on February 28 of 2024," the notice reads.

It reads that in the meantime, the respondents are sounded a caution to consider the compliance of the writ court direction as it obtains with respect to the future of the students undergoing their education in the petitioner's schools.