Education officer in Shopian appeals to people to report this matter to him

Shopian: Schools in Shopian have stooped to a new low, forcing students to obtain online forms for scholarships only from the school and by charging them Rs 200 for it, even though the form is free.
Many students informed Kashmir Reader that they are being threatened that if they do not obtain online forms from their own school, the school will not accept the hard copies and will not approve it at the school level.
Haziq Ahmad, a student from Imam Sahib area, said that the national scholarship or NSP amounts to just a thousand rupees and if the school charges Rs 200 and a further Rs 100 are spent on photostat of documents, it takes away 30 percent of the scholarship.
“On occasions some students even don’t get that thousand rupees for many months,” he said.
Not only private but government schools are also forcing students to obtain the online forms through the school. “They get a bulk of forms and distribute it among teachers to sell them to students. Then they spend the money earned for their own purposes,” alleged another student.
Students also allege that a similar thing was done with them last year when the internet clampdown was in place post August 5. “Some of us were charged Rs 500 last year and others were forced to wait in lines for months in and outside government offices,” said Arbeena Jan, a school student.
Students said that they themselves can submit these forms online and it doesn’t take them more than five minutes to do so, but they are being forced to shell out Rs 200. “All the students of our school were told to submit scholarship forms from the school, otherwise they will not approve them,” said a student of a private school here.
Chief Education Officer Shopian, Mushtaq Ahmed, told Kashmir Reader that strict and swift action will be taken against those who are doing this, provided the students bring this to his notice.
“Schools have to provide the forms without charging a penny from students,” he said, and appealed to students and parents to contact his office if anything is being charged from them.

Raashid Hassan