-Reshma Ravishanker
The Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) has threatened to shut schools and go on a strike if the education departments offers transfer certificates (TC) to those students whose parents have not paid the previous year’s academic fee.
In retaliation to a statement made by a top official in the department of public instruction that Block Education Officers will be authorised to give TCs to students if schools refuse them for not having paid the last year’s fee (2020-21), D Shashi Kumar, General Secretary, KAMS said on Friday that it is not befitting of education department officials to make such statements and threatened of consequences if the decision was to stay.
Earlier this week, some media houses quoted S R Umashankar, the principal secretary, department of primary and secondary education as saying that parents need not make multiple rounds to the school, requesting them to provide a transfer certificate and collect it from the nearby BEO’s office instead.
Umashankar said this after some parents said that even as they wished to admit their students in government schools after being unable to afford education in private schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they were unable to do so as they did not have transfer certificates.
“What does the department intend to do with the education system in Karnataka. We are already in a financial crisis. If this continues, we will be unable to function. By doing this, parents get a free hand and will not be accountable to pay the previous year’s fee which is long overdue. We will protest by shutting down schools if this happens,” Shashi Kumar said in a statement.
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