Srinagar, Apr 12: Following the closure of schools in Jammu and Kashmir, the disaster management authorities on Monday said that there was no proposal in the pipeline to close the private coaching institutions to carry academics online.
However, the parents of those wards studying in private coaching centers fear repercussions amid a spike in COVID-19 cases saying that the students are more vulnerable of getting infected because of huge enrolments.
One of the parents Manzoor Ahmad told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the government must take some accountability in regulating the private coaching institutes amid a spike in COVID-19 cases and considering the health of the students.
“As per the government, either the risk of students getting infected remains confined to the schools only or there is no risk of getting COVID-19 infected out there in private coaching institutes wherein the student enrolment is multiple times more than the schools,” Ahmad questioned.
Ahmad said, “It appears like the government is in nexus with the private coaching institute management and that seems to be one of the main reasons that authorities are not taking a call on the functioning of the institutions.”
Another parent Abdul Majeed said that the disaster management authorities seem to be least bothered about the students studying in private coaching institutes as dozens of students are being taught in a one room and there is no accountability on it.
Majeed said, “As compared to schools, the student enrolment in private coaching has very high enrolment and there is extra risk for students in getting Coronavirus infected.”
Meanwhile, officials of disaster management of Jammu and Kashmir told KNO that there was no proposal with the government to announce that the private coaching institutes will function online.
“As of now, there is no proposal in the pipeline with the disaster management authorities to close the private coaching institutions to carry academics online,” the official said.
Pertinently, authorities last week closed a private tuition centre in Srinagar after three of its students tested were COVID-19 positive—(KNO)
