Madhya Pradesh: Over 47,000 Private Schools Suspend Online Classes

Over 47,000 private schools in Madhya Pradesh suspended online classes indefinitely on Monday. The decision was taken to stress the demands to restore their identity and restore physical classes for 9-12.

MP Private School Association president Ajeet Singh stated that they decided to suspend classes indefinitely after failing to get a response from the state government. In Madhya Pradesh, almost 45,000 private schools come under the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE). MPBSE is the umbrella organisation comprising these 45,000 MPBSE-affiliated schools. Also, 2,800 private schools are affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Demands Of MPBSE

According to Singh, MPBSE had mainly demanded from authorities to renew the recognition certificates of those schools which have been closed for five years, instead of the schools being closed for just one year. They also demand that the authorities stop inspecting these schools. "Looking at the losses that we have incurred, the state government should not charge the annual school recognition fee during these testing times," he said, reported Hindustan Times.

The president further noted that following the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the state government provides education to underprivileged children and is supposed to pay for it. Therefore, the government should set off the dues pending with the school.

Demands Of Other Organisations

VR Modi, the president of yet another organisation — which has the earlier mentioned 2,800 schools under its scope — has confirmed that they have suspended online classes from Monday as well. But VR Modi stressed more on opening up the physical classes for classes 9-12, asking that if the rest of the places have opened up, why are senior classes in schools not being permitted to re-open.

Online Classes In Government Schools

However, this is not the first time that the state government is facing feuds over online classes. Earlier, the state government had suspended online classes for both government and private schools (except for classes 10 and 12) for the entire month of May.

Even after June 1, the private schools resumed their classes online, but the government schools received no directives to continue their classes online. Both teachers and students of these schools noted the absence of online classes to be hampering their academics, reported The Times Of India.

Similar Demands From Other States

With state governments easing lockdown restrictions and opening public spaces, demands for re-opening schools across states have been rising. The Unaided Private School Association (UPSA) of Uttar Pradesh recently wrote to Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma, urging him to resume offline classes in a phased manner from July 19. He also cited that if gyms and malls can open up, so can school, as reported by India.com.

Meanwhile, Puducherry has announced the reopening of colleges and schools for classes 9-12. Following this, the academic community and school management systems in its neighbouring state Tamil Nadu have also called for reopening schools, citing that the absence of offline classes adversely affects the students. Some states have already announced the resumption of physical classes such as Haryana and Gujarat.

Also read: Three Tamil Nadu Teachers Bag Awards For Enrolling More SC/ST Students