Although the state government has indicated that academic activities would start only in August in view of the Corona pandemic, it has not yet issued clear orders or guidelines. The Government seems to be adopting a cautious approach against any eventuality that might arise over its decision and is shifting the entire responsibility to the school managements. The government is insisting that schools must collect the views of parents about reopening of schools but there is no clarity on resolving the issue in case the parents are not unanimous in their opinion. The government seems to be wanting to have the cake and eat it too - it wants schools to reopen but is not prepared to face repercussions.
This along with the government’s lack of clarity on conducting online classes seems to be the reason why it is sending confusing signals. Recently two senior ministers issued contradictory statements on online classes confounding the confusion. While Law Minister J.C.Madhu Swamy has said that state cabinet has decided to ban online classes from LKG to seventh standard, Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar has stated that online classes will be disallowed only up to fifth standard.
In any case, the government seems to be taking a hasty decision on online classes despite being aware of the fact that more than 25 lakh children have no access to smart phones. The government also has no clarity about the alternative arrangements for those who cannot participate in online classes. In the absence of such arrangements, online education is bound to lead to discrimination. Poor children who cannot access online classes might also experience depression. The government should study the impact of the social divide and the digital divide that online education will create and disallow online education till SSLC. A hasty decision will deprive a substantial number of students of education.
In the midst of all this confusion, private schools are stuck in a quandary. It’s a wrong notion that all private schools are set up with the sole intention to make profit. Many private schools are set up to spread education with a service motto and their role in spreading education cannot be undermined. Not just in Karnataka, private institutions all over the country have created an educational revolution by imparting education on a large scale much before the government woke up. While Christian institutions were the pioneers, other private organizations eventually adopted the same model. Private schools must also be credited for providing education to the poor. When an increasing number of government schools are closing down, private schools are effectively filling the gap and are serving the public by charging reasonable fees. Such schools are now facing the brunt of the government’s confusion. The government should immediately listen to the woes of these mid-size private schools and, for the moment, keep the ‘five-star’ schools aside.
In the present circumstances, the government has two options. First, it should issue clear directions to schools about resuming academic activities instead of creating confusion and repose confidence in them. Even if it decides to reopen schools by August or September, it should provide clear guidelines. Second, if the government decides schools should not reopen this year, it should address the concerns of these private schools. While such a decision will not impact the rich schools, the schools that depend on the middle classes for survival will suffer a lot. One of the most significant problems before these schools that don’t receive any financial aid from the government would be the payment of salaries of staff. If these schools are shut for a year, the fate of their employees would be precarious and many of them would find it difficult to sustain. If the government assures such schools that it would provide at least half the salaries to employees, these schools might survive for at least a year. Otherwise, many schools might be forced to close down or it might become inevitable for teachers and staff to forego their salaries. In such a situation, the government must respond and step in to address the problem of these staff members.
But the most important task before the government now is to resolve the confusion that it has created by issuing contradictory statements and take a firm decision. The state cannot view health and education separately – one is related to the body and another is related to the mind. Both have a bearing on building a society. Our education minister should also adopt a reasonable stand towards the private schools that are working along with government schools to provide education as a service.
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New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday said it has received fresh notices from the income-tax department, asking it to pay Rs 1,823.08 crore, and alleged that the BJP is in "serious violation" of income-tax laws for which authorities should raise a demand of more than Rs 4,600 crore from the saffron party.
The Congress also accused the ruling BJP of indulging in "tax terrorism" to financially cripple the opposition party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here along with Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, party treasurer Ajay Maken alleged that the BJP is in serious violation of income-tax laws and said the I-T department should raise a demand of Rs 4,617.58 crore from the saffron party for such violations.
Maken said political parties have to fill up a proforma of Form 24A, in which two basic and important pieces of information have to be furnished -- the names and addresses of their donors.
"We have analysed all the submissions of the BJP to the Election Commission (EC). The party has faltered every year," Maken claimed.
Ramesh alleged that through the "electoral bonds scam", the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has collected Rs 8,200 crore and used the route of "pre-paid, post-paid, post-raid bribes and shell companies".
On the other hand, the BJP is engaged in "tax terrorism", he alleged.
"Efforts are being made to financially cripple the Congress, but we are not going to be cowed down," Ramesh said.
He asserted that the Congress's campaign for the upcoming parliamentary polls will continue and the party will take its guarantees to the people of the country.
"We will not be scared of these notices. We will be more aggressive and fight these polls," the former Union minister said.
Maken alleged that the Congress and other like-minded opposition parties are being selectively targeted by the I-T department, which he described as the BJP's "frontal organisation".
He said the Supreme Court will soon hear the Congress's plea on the I-T department's demands from it.
"An illegal attempt to freeze the bank accounts of the principal opposition party in February has gone on for more than a month on the eve of the general election," Maken said.
Before the dust could settle on that unprecedented "vindictive" action, in a patently "illegal and undemocratic" move, the "frontal organisation of the BJP" has launched its next "premeditated" and "diabolical" campaign against the Congress, he added.
The income-tax returns filed by the Congress for eight years have been reopened on "baseless and manufactured" grounds to levy illegal I-T demand orders totalling thousands of crores of rupees, Maken said.
The timing of the I-T department's action -- in February and March, days before and even days after the Lok Sabha polls were announced on March 16 -- speaks for itself about the mala-fide nature of these actions, the Congress leader said.
Maken alleged that the "BJP-ruled I-T department" has so far forcibly taken out Rs 135 crore from the Congress's bank accounts due to an alleged Rs 14 lakh non-compliance demand against the party.
"This amount was recovered by freezing more than Rs 270 crore of the Congress's bank balance across several accounts," he said.
During this period of several weeks, the bank accounts of the Congress were effectively "frozen" in an illegal attempt to paralyse the party's functioning during the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Maken alleged.
"This action was designed to choke the Congress financially and prevent, stop, delay and disable any election-related expenditure by the party on advertisements, travel, salaries, agencies etc.
"It is indeed appalling that the financial years assessed go back to 1993-94, when the late Sitaram Kesri was the party's treasurer. Out of the eight years, the I-T demand orders for four years have been issued by the BJP's frontal organisation even without assessment orders. This is unprecedented in the history of taxation in India," he said.
"These orders are based on manufactured and planted diaries and so-called raids by the BJP's frontal organisation on third parties. Several of these raided third parties enjoy stay orders from courts based on vitiated search procedures by the I-T department," Maken claimed, adding that the same interim relief is not being granted to the Congress.
In the history of India, why is the Congress, a tax-exempt political party like others, being "forced" to pay income tax during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, he asked.
"Why have the BJP or its alliance partners not been dealt with similarly? Why has the I-T department not taken cognisance of the Yediyurappa diaries, Jain diaries, Sahara diaries, Birla diaries, Bangaru Lakshman convictions and penalised the BJP?" he asked.
"Why is the EC -- the guarantor of free-and-fair elections -- a mute spectator? Is this not an obvious, brazen, blatant and shameful attempt by the BJP to illegally financially cripple the opposition? Where is the level-playing field in Indian elections? Can 2024 be called a free-and-fair election anymore?" Maken asked.