Pressure within Congress Govt mounts to not take a complete haircut on Schools in Himachal
Congress party state unit chief Pratibha Singh has forced the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu Government to not take the complete haircut taken on May 26, 2023, to denotify 90 schools that have been upgraded by the former BJP government.
In a fresh notification issued on May 30 Director of Higher Education, Amarjeet Singh ordered that 90 schools which were earlier denotified now 70 would not be closed with increasing in enrollment in these schools.
In a notification issued on May 26, 2023, the Sukhu government decided to de-notified 20 Govt Middle schools, 34 High and 36 Senior Secondary schools, and Senior Secondary Schools in Himachal Pradesh due to the very low number of students. The Middle school with a strength of below 15, Govt. High Schools of 20 and Govt. Senior Secondary Schools with 25 students were upgraded by the previous BJP government after 01.04.2022.
It was not only the opposition BJP but Congress party president Pratibha Singh and former Congress MLA Asha Kumari who were opposing their own government for taking unproven haircuts or steps to put scissors on 90 schools.
Ms. Pratibha Singh on May 28 criticized the Sukhu government for taking the arbitrary decision to close a number of schools located in her tribal (Parliamentary) areas without consensus within the ruling party.
After 24 hrs of Ms. Singh’s objections, the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government gave 2nd thought to thawing the ice as it decided to restore 26 of the Schools but 64 Schools remained denotified.
A notification was also issued by the Director of Higher Education on May 29 that de – notified schools that fulfill the enrollment criteria of 20 & above in GHSs and 25 & above in GSSSS as of 29-05-2023 may be kept in abeyance and Status Quo till further orders be maintained.
The Department also directed the principals of the concerned schools not to relieve the staff from such schools till further orders however 20 denotified middle schools having 15 or less than 15 students and upgraded after April 1, 2022, would remain denotified as per the latest order.
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government soon after taking charge of Govt on Dec 12, 2022, decided to denotify 900 government institutions which are opened by the former Jai Ram Thakur Government after April 1, 2022. About 90 schools were upgraded during the previous government was also denotified recently but these schools were allowed to continue to work as such stating that government did not want to distribute already enrolled students.
