Patiala- Before independence, when there was a shortage of schools in remote areas, people with vision and social reformist thinking came together and collected donations from the people and established 512 schools in the Indian Punjab region, which were brought under the Delhi pattern and grant-in-aid scheme by the government led by Chief Minister Lachhman Singh Gill in 1967.
In 2003, during the government of Captain Amarinder Singh, due to the ban on grant-in-aid posts in aided schools, the financial expenses of the aided school management, which is struggling with staff shortage due to staff retirement every month, are increasing due to keeping unaided staff.
No financial assistance is provided for the construction of school buildings, furniture, repairs, payment of electricity bills, and hundreds of daily expenses. The buildings of most of these schools are heritage-worthy. The expenses for painting are in lakhs.
The previous government closed the 95%+5% grant scheme and implemented the 70%+30% policy, which was a kind of response to the non-filling of posts because it is not possible for the school management committees, which are barely managing 5%, to get 30% share.
The C&V grant has not been released for fifteen months, or half of it has been released incompletely, some districts have been released with grants up to February 2025 as per the Sixth Pay Commission, some have been released only as per the Fifth Pay Commission and some have not been released at all.
Half of the schools in some districts have been released, the rest are waiting. The department has become isolated, the education minister is not available or does not listen, the system is out of control.
Schools are currently struggling with these problems that now the Finance Department and the Education Department are repeatedly asking for income and expenditure accounts, which are already sent to the department every year, and now the preparation to send teams to schools to check is being considered nothing less than a conspiracy to close aided schools.
Isn't the government, which claims to be an education revolution, making the mistake of destroying the entire education system by closing aided schools, a strong pillar of the education system?
In this regard, State President of Aided School Management Association SS Chawla Faridkot, Dr. Jasbir Singh Ludhiana, Pradeep Sarin Amritsar, JP Sur Arya Pratnath Sabha, Chief Advisor Management Committee Association and President Punjab Aided Pensioner Association Gurcharan Singh Chahal, Dr. Gurmeet Singh Banga, Daljit Singh Kharar, Yadwinder and Punjab State Government Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union-1967 State President Gurmeet Singh Madnipur, General Secretary Sharanjit Singh Kadimajra, Abbot Masih, Ashok Vadera and Press Secretary Hardeep Singh Dhindsa issued a joint press note and said that the government's step-by-step treatment towards aided schools and aided staff is unacceptable. If the department does not change its attitude towards aided schools, then the management, pensioners and Punjab State Government Aided School Teachers and Other Employees Union will have no choice but to start a struggle.