Govt does away with fee waiver for girl students

SRINAGAR: Initiated with much enthusiasm, terming it as a step towards ensuring inclusion of girls under the ambit of school education, the state government had backtracked on the commitment of providing free admission for female students in the government-run schools, withdrawing the policy less than two years since its implementation. While the discontinuation of admission fee waiver was announced by Education Minister in the first week of this month, the scrapping of the policy was confirmed as the same was not announced in the Budget 2018-19, which was presented in the Assembly on Thursday during the ongoing legislative session.
Pertinently, while unveiling Rs 64,669 crore budget for the year 2016-17, Finance minister Dr Haseeb Drabu had declared waiver of admission fee for girls in government schools of the state, a move aimed to "encourage and incentivise" education for girl students and which was implemented in spirit and letter.
The policy, which won accolades from one and all, however, has now been discontinued the confirmation coming from its absence in budget announcement by Finance Minister, thus permitting the authorities in government high and higher secondary schools to collect admission fee from girls.
On January 4, this year, Education Minister Altaf Bukhari had said in Jammu that girl students enrolled in government schools will be charged fee from now onwards.
"The fee charged is very nominal and is utilised for small works in educational institutions," Bukhari had said.
Officials in the education department said that the funds collected from as fee from students was used for school repair and other miscellaneous expenditure.
They informed that the finance minister had last year declared that the government will provide funds to the school education department in lieu of the fee waiver.
"However, the funds were not provided to the department by the finance ministry," they said.
When contacted, Commissioner Secretary Farooq Shah declined to comment, while Director Education Kashmir Dr G N Itoo was not reachable on phone.
On January 4, Itoo had told media that fee waiver was a policy decision made during the Budget Session in 2016 and the "ongoing Budget Session will clear whether the government will continue this policy or not."
An official in the department said that since the continuation of the policy has not been announced in the Budget, "it means it has been stopped."
This scrapping of the policy is seen as a major setback for girl education in the state, especially for those who come from underprivileged families, with weaker finances, with resentment brewing among the general public.
Tajamul Imran, a student leader in Kashmir, said that the policy should be continued for women education.
"It was a small step towards women empowerment. But sadly the government discontinued it," Imran told The News Now.
Ezabir Ali, a woman activist, said girls are coming up with bright colours in academics and the free admission policy was small support for those women who come from poor and weaker families.
Ezabir said that poor families, because of lack of money, prefer and promote their sons over girls for education.
"Free admission policy was sort of a succor for these poor girls. It would have been nice to continue the policy for education of those girls who don't have any financial support. Discontinuing it is a setback to the education of poor girls," she told The News Now.