Govt yet to get official intimation
SHILLONG: A top ranked public school in the city is on the verge of extinction despite its prowess in academics, sports, NCC, Scouts and other extracurricular activities.
The Assam Rifles Public School (ARPS), located on the campus of Assam Rifles Headquarters in Laitkor, ranked 29th by Educational World – a leading education portal in India – among all the day cum boarding schools in the country is heading to an imminent closure by the Assam Rifles authorities citing bankruptcy, but it has in the process revealed this oldest paramilitary forces’ alleged vindictive stand.
Without considering the mental agony of the students who are writing their examinations and also the parents who are worried about their wards, for the last three days since Friday, the Assam Rifles higher ups in the hurriedly called meetings with students (both day scholars and boarders) and parents, have already started telling them to take transfer certificates, thereby creating fear that the school will be closed down anytime.
When contacted, a spokesperson with Assam Rifles claimed that there were some discussions to close down the school, but no decision has been taken as of now.
The spokesperson also said that running of the school is not financially viable, as earning is less than spending.
“While the parents are not agreeing to increase the fees to tide over the crisis, talks are still on so that the teachers agree to some conditions,” the official said.
The Assam Rifles official also claimed that DGAR and ARPS have different managements.
However, State Education department officials said on Sunday that they are in the dark about the move of the Assam Rifles to close down the school, though the State officials are part of the governing body.
Secretary, Education department and Director, Higher and Technical Education are members of the governing body of ARPS.
The officials also said that no official letter has come from the Assam Rifles regarding the status of its move to close down the school even as they said only after they receive any official letter, the State government can intervene.
The school was founded by the then ‘philanthropist and visionary’ Director General of Assam Rifles (DGAR), Lt. General Sushil Kumar in 1980 in order to give quality education to the deserving children of Assam Rifles personnel besides civilian students and those from BPL categories.
This CBSE affiliated co-educational school is run by the Assam Rifles Public School Society, an autonomous body, with the DGAR as chairman of the school governing body and Additional DGAR as chairman of the school managing committee.
But now the management of the school has decided to close down the school on April 1 thereby putting an end to 500 hostel seats, 563 students and 120 teaching and non-teaching staff. The school has classes from standard IV to XII and offers all three streams, that is, Science, Arts and Commerce at the higher secondary level.
The reason behind the closure of the school lies in the inability of the school management to pay salaries of staff as per Central Pay Commission (CPC) – which is a CBSE bye-law. These staff who were receiving their salaries as per 4th and 5th CPC, minus some allowances to which they never complained, were denied their dues as per the 6th CPC when it came into effect as the school management did not correctly carryout the fixations at that time.
To make things further worse, the school management has even delinked the Dearness Allowances (DA) of staff from the union government DA. Frustrated over these deprivations the staff took legal course against the school management with the then Shillong Bench of Gauhati High Court which on September 5, 2012 had ruled in favour of ARPS staff. But the school management not caring about those staff who died in the interim period of this case, filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court which on July 21, 2015 upheld the judgment passed by the Gauhati High Court.
It seems this was not enough for the Assam Rifles as the school management then moved a review petition before the Supreme Court which was immediately rejected. However, the adamant school management did not disburse the new salaries of the staff despite the SC verdict following which the staff had to file a contempt of court notice in the same court. They received their salary with effect from November, 2015, but the Supreme Court has asked the school management to clear the arrears in eight months’ time.
The school management and board of governors after examining the financial health of the school and other possible options lying before it have concluded that it will no longer be financially viable to run the school after implementing the Supreme Court verdict. The Chairman of the school management has issued written notices to all parents and guardians to collect their wards’ transfer certificates and the school will be closed down from April 1, 2016.
The irony is that the school has in the middle of February this year advertised for admission from classes IV to IX for academic session 2016-2017 in ARPS in this daily. Sources said that the present situation of the school can also be attributed to the non-revision of annual fees of the students. This apathetic attitude of the school management has resulted in collection of annual fees of Rs 1.2 lakh for wards of civilians and Rs 42,000 for wards of defence personnel for several years now without any revision.
This move by the school management has led to widespread panic since ARPS is also catering to poor and downtrodden children from BPL categories whose education is taken care of by the North Eastern Council (NEC). The closure of the school will not only jeopardize the future of these students but hundreds others lodged in its boarding and day scholars.
There are also allegations that the incumbent DGAR has inflicted ‘inhuman mental agony upon the staff members of ARPS’. The school management and governing body promised to pay the staff all arrears and salaries as per the directions of the Supreme Court of India up to March 31, 2016 following which they wish to introduce their own salary structures, which has been termed as ‘depriving’ by the ARPS staff since the proposed salary structure is not only less than the current 7th CPC but also lesser than the previous 6th CPC.
It is alleged that when the ARPS staff refused to accept this offer the Assam Rifles even tried to force them to sign an affidavit in this regard and warned that the school would be closed down from April 1, 2016 if they fail to sign the agreement. When apprised, the DGAR too allegedly made similar recommendations to the staff.
Following the notice issued by the school management on December 31, 2015 to close down the school and discontinuation of services of all its permanent employees, the school alumni met the DGAR with a solution to the vexed issue. The staff members proposed considerately that they will not take the 7th CPC for the next three years and will not ask for the same as arrears later. They proposed to take only 60% of their 6th CPC arrears now and the rest in five to seven years’ timeframe from 2017 onwards. Staff members claim that the DGAR on the first day of this meeting generously declared that he will help the school to arrange 60% arrears by giving a one-time grant besides the remaining amount as a non-interest returnable loan to the school. However on the second day of the meeting the same DGAR ‘blatantly denied his proposal to give the loan’ alleged the staff.
Not enough, the DGAR next allegedly resorted to malign the image of the ARPS staff by calling them ‘unconcerned’ in a meeting with parents and teachers. The DGAR further told the parents and guardians of wards that in order to pay salaries to the school staff, the school will need to hike the fees by 60% from this year and 10% every subsequent year with a motive to scare the parents so that they take out their wards from the school and Assam Rifles can fulfill its desire to close down the school.
Sources observed that to bail out the school from the financial crunch a one-time grant of around Rs 10 -15 crore, which can be sourced from the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Home Affairs, North Eastern Council and other sources besides the corpus fund of the school.
Sources informed that the school has about Rs 3 crore at its disposal and an additional few crores of money was transferred by the school in 1997 to the DGAR Accounts Branch as corpus savings of ARPS. The school claims that they have documents of this transfer and also the Assam Rifles Headquarters at Laitkor but the DGAR ‘mysteriously refuses to accept that this money exists’.
The corpus fund amount has now bloated up to Rs 8 crore with accrued interest. “Where that money has gone?” the ARPS staff is rightly questioning.
Besides, the school can also seek monetary aid from different financial institutions as per a recent circular from the CBSE that mentions that all such schools run by the defence forces are conferred government aided status.
Meanwhile, those who are in the knowhow are questioning the ‘real motive’ of Assam Rifles authorities in closing down this prestigious school, which is also a centre for conducting AIPMT (All India Pre Medical Examination Test) besides earning several accolades in President’s Scouts Awards, Governor’s Scouts Awards, Republic Day parades, National Science Olympiads, among others.
Questions are being raised as to who is the competent authority to declare an educational institution bankrupt. Well wishers of the school are of the opinion that bankruptcy cannot be a ‘self imposed rule by school management committee and board of governors rather there should be involvement of a third party independent agency’.
They reasoned this with an example of companies which are declared sick by the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and there should be a competent independent government authority in case of educational institutions likewise since the future of hundreds of students and staff are at stake here. Some have even pointed out that when the Assam Rifles can organize lavish football, golf tournaments and have all the funds to maintain a ‘luxurious tycoon type’ sprawling estate of its headquarters at Laitkor with all modern amenities then why can’t it sustain its own school.
According to aggrieved parents, the ‘arbitrary stand’ taken by the Assam Rifles demeans the very purpose for which the institution was founded by Sushil Kumar and also puts this paramilitary force in a very bad light which considers itself to be the ‘Sentinels of the Northeast’.